Having “Safety Smarts” Important Before Tackling Yard Care
Briggs & Stratton Empowers Women as Yard Safety Advisers
MILWAUKEE – The national statistics are an eye opener – thousands of people are injured each year while caring for their yards.
In 2002, the Consumer Products Safety Commission reports an estimated 250,000 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to lawn and garden equipment, including 73,000 whose injuries were related to lawn mowers. Nearly a third of all lawn and garden equipment injuries involved women.
Briggs & Stratton Corporation, the world’s largest producer of air-cooled gasoline-powered engines, is empowering women to become their families' safety advisers around the yard to reduce the number of yard care-related injuries – both to themselves and family members. Through its recently launched Yard Smarts for Women educational program, the company is educating women on “Safety Smarts” – the facts about yard care safety - before they power up the lawn mower, string trimmer and other equipment this spring.
“Women are the safety advocates in the family," explains Anita Fisher, marketing communications manager of consumer marketing for Briggs & Stratton. "We want women to know the safety rules because we know they will educate their families and help keep them safe.”
Safety features that are built into power mowers today help limit injuries, she points out. For example, all mowers are required to have an automatic shut-off – called an Operator Presence Control – that stops the mower's blades from rotating and shuts down the engine if the user takes her hands off of the mower handle or leaves the seat of a riding mower. "Women should think in terms of the 'safe operation zone,'" explains Fisher. "The safest place – and only place – to be when operating a lawn mower is directly behind the mower with both hands on the handle. Any time she leaves this position, the mower should be turned off.
“Many injuries are due to a simple lack of knowledge or one careless moment – you know what you are doing isn't safe, but you think it will be okay one time,” says Fisher.
Yard Smarts offers these top nine safety rules for mowing and trimming safely this year:
• Read and follow the safety and operating instructions for your equipment
• Wear proper clothing: jeans or long pants and sturdy shoes (skip the sandals and light canvas shoes!)
• Don't mow grass on a hill with a slope greater than 15 degrees
• Check the yard before you start, picking up sticks, stones, toys and debris
• Keep children and pets away whenever you are using any outdoor power equipment
• Keep your hands and feet away from moving parts.
• Never try to unclog the mower discharge while the mower is running, never pull a lawn mower backwards towards you and never tie down the Operator Presence Control bar
• Handle gasoline carefully; fill up before you start the mower, while the engine is cool. Wait two minutes before refueling a warm engine.
• Don't operate a gas engine inside a garage or enclose even if the windows or doors are open
• Store equipment properly: Don't store an engine next to a water heater or other device which has a flame or generates a spark
The Yard Smarts for Women (www.yardsmarts.com web site offers a comprehensive Safety Checklist that women can download and tack up in the garage or garden shed to keep safety top of mind this season.The web site also offers safety tips on how to work with string trimmers, edgers and other yard equipment.
"Women take safety and protecting their families very seriously, and they can help make a difference," Fisher says.
Yard Smarts for Women is an educational program designed specifically for women to build their knowledge and give them confidence to handle yard care duties.The program, the first of its kind focused on yard care for women, responds to the growing number of single women and single Moms taking on yard care, as well as women who participate in yard work along with their families.
Briggs & Stratton Corporation is the largest manufacturer of small, air-cooled engines for outdoor power equipment, including lawn mowers, pressure washers and generators. The engines are backed by an authorized service network of more than 30,000 dealers worldwide. Briggs & Stratton engines can be found powering equipment in more than 90 countries on all seven continents.
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