National Farm Safety and Health Week 2025: Bassett Healthcare Network Recognizes New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health

Each year, on the third full week of September, the United States observes National Farm Safety and Health Week. This week serves as an important reminder of the critically important but often labor intensive and physically dangerous work that farmers and farmworkers complete each day as they supply us all with food.

This year’s theme is “Safety First – Avoid the Worst,” which highlights work being done to ensure those working in agriculture have the tools and resources they need to stay safe and healthy at work.

The New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH), a program of Bassett Healthcare Network, is dedicated to proactively addressing and preventing occupational injuries and illnesses. NYCAMH’s team of nationally-recognized experts work collaboratively with businesses, industry leaders, and health and safety professionals to ensure the most up-to-date research is translated into actionable, practical programs, which directly support agriculture, forestry, and commercial fishing industries.

Some of those programs include performing farm walkthroughs, facilitating trainings, performing respirator fit testing, offering counseling services, the John May Farm Safety Fund which provides financial assistance to New York farmers to improve safety on their land, and the National ROPS Rebate Program which offers rebates for the cost of purchasing and installing Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS) on tractors.

In 2024, the ROPS Rebate Program helped improve the safety of 2,000 tractors in New York. Tractor rollovers continue to be the largest cause of fatalities on farms, making ROPS installations a life-saving investment. NYCAMH’s work is made possible through federal and state funding.

Bassett Healthcare Network is proud to celebrate NYCAMH’s accomplishments during National Farm Safety and Health Week and beyond.