Old Rusty Tins

Shirleyr

Shirleyr

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Shirley
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I expect anyone who lives in an old house with a shed that contains old rusty tins have pushed them to one side in order to sort them out one day. This happened to a farmer friend who had taken over an estate farm that had an old shed with old tins that had been there for many years, unfortunatly my friend had not cleared them out.
On Saturday he was in the shed and was looking for nails so he picked up a tin and shook it and then opened it and what happened next was a liquid shot out of the tin and covered his face, hands and went on to his clothes. One of the workers grabbed the tin and on the side of it he could just make out one word Strychnine. Both the lads in their twenties of course knew nothing about such a thing but one poured cold water over the farmer and phonned 999, ambulance with blue lights shot to the farm, air ambulance stood by with a doctor on board.
In the meantime the farmer went into the house for a shower, the paramedic arrived with protective clothing and masks and got him to hospital which is well over an hour away and he remained there from 4pm till 1 am.
What happens now he's back on the farm with the posion in the shed and what he touched in the farm house, door handles, shower. A complete mess, two young children and his wife at risk. All because he didn't check what was written on the tin. Its been said that farms are dangerous place, very true. I'll let you know what does happen, I think he could be prosecuted as anyone handling such stuff needs a licence. Farmers who could get the posion used it to kill rats and moles.
So, if you have any old tins in your shed please don't open them, bin them asap.
 
Eh but not Strychnine though, you don't want to just chuck that in the bin.
 
And that's the problem with farmers, worms dipped in strychnine, and then dropped into a mole run, was the recognised way of killing moles,
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of the same thing happening with Cymag , (cyanide gas) , ( rat and Rabbit killer) which has been banned for some years,
It does turn up from time to time in old farm buildings and the like.
At least there is an anti-dote, unlike the Aluminium phosphide that replaced it.
 
A gentleman of my acquaintance many years ago worked in a plating works where cyanide was used and had developed an unhealthy liking to the antidote...
 
Cobra said:
And that's the problem with farmers, worms dipped in strychnine, and then dropped into a mole run, was the recognised way of killing moles,
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of the same thing happening with Cymag , (cyanide gas) , ( rat and Rabbit killer) which has been banned for some years,
It does turn up from time to time in old farm buildings and the like.
At least there is an anti-dote, unlike the Aluminium phosphide that replaced it.
Click to expand...
When I worked on a farm that's exactly what the farmer used to do, my Father and I never used posion. In the fields I used to kick the soil but I remember catching a rat in a cage trap. Dam rats always came in pairs.
 
Cobra said:
And that's the problem with farmers, worms dipped in strychnine, and then dropped into a mole run, was the recognised way of killing moles,
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of the same thing happening with Cymag , (cyanide gas) , ( rat and Rabbit killer) which has been banned for some years,
It does turn up from time to time in old farm buildings and the like.
At least there is an anti-dote, unlike the Aluminium phosphide that replaced it.
Click to expand...

I remember my dad doing that exact thing on the farm as a kid.

Then there was the real version of Whackmole. :D
 
Cobra said:
And I assume you either shot it, or killed it by cervical dislocation, and certainly not by drowning :)

Elephants "come in buckets" apparently :D
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you been watching GRIMSBY i presume
 
Jeff it was Morfa Nefyn in the eighties not the wild west, we didn't have a gun.
 
It was the elephant innuendo Shirley ,you have to watch the film to know :hug:
 
Farms are horrifically dangerous places
1. Almost total lack of inspection, so no real enforcement of regulations
2. Lack of staff, which means that people often need to do jobs on their own which are only safe with more than one person - for example it needs more than one person to go into a pen with most animals but it just doesn't happen.
3. Bad working conditions, for example very slippery surfaces, hilly ground, so tractors etc turn over
4. Typically very old machinery, not maintained, often with guards rusted away or removed
5. Most of the really effective chemicals have been banned, so farmers keep stocks of things that they shouldn't have, hidden away from sight and usually mis-labeled to avoid them getting caught with them
6. Poor or non-existent mobile phone signal often means that there is no help available when needed.
7. Guns are often left in tractors, or leaned up against a wall, instead of being locked up
 
Blimey, some statement.
1% maybe but on the whole all the farms I've visited are spot on. I have never seen a gun left on a tractor. Farmers know the rules and the penalties. Accidents happen on farm but accidents happen in all works places.

.
 
We must move in different circles then. I'm talking about small to medium size mixed farms, with up to about 10 people employed, and I've been on a lot of them. It's possible that some of the really big farms are inspected regularly and that H&S is considered important, I wouldn't know about those.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Guns are often left in tractors,
Click to expand...
Or bouncing around in the back of a pick-up!

Garry Edwards said:
Most of the really effective chemicals have been banned, so farmers keep stocks of things that they shouldn't have
Click to expand...
I must admit to having some sympathy, "We" are fast losing all the really effective products, making my life a lot harder too!
 
Garry Edwards said:
We must move in different circles then. I'm talking about small to medium size mixed farms, with up to about 10 people employed, and I've been on a lot of them. It's possible that some of the really big farms are inspected regularly and that H&S is considered important, I wouldn't know about those.
Click to expand...

How many, in the grand scheme of things?
 
viv1969 said:
How many, in the grand scheme of things?
Click to expand...
Quite a few, I'm not going to go into details, most of them are owned by neighbours.
I have a son who used to work for a farm contractor, he used to work on a lot of small farms and some of the things that he has told me about, and even asked to do, don't bear thinking about.

I agree that by no means all are bad, but I think that the statistics speak for themselves http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/agriculture/index.htm
Just as an example: "
The worker fatal injury rate in the sector
(9.12 per
100,000 workers) remains
much
higher than any other industry sector:
around 6 times that in construction and 20
times that across all industries (1.62 and
0.46 per 100,000 respectively)."
 
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