Occupational health and safety in olive harvest

The most important principle of occupational health and safety is to protect employees from work accidents and diseases and to ensure they work in a safe and healthy environment. The agricultural sector has an important place in business life with the climatic conditions, natural resources and soil structure of our country. Agriculture has an economically important position for every country. Olives are among the top ten agricultural products in our country's economy. Olives are grown with different methods from planting to harvest period. Hand harvesting is a common method in our country, especially in olive harvesting. In this case, the worker is overloaded in terms of energy and work efficiency decreases. During the planting, harvesting and transportation of olive seedlings, lifting, repetitive movements, reaching, pushing, pulling, turning, working for a long time, many musculoskeletal diseases are seen. Health problems such as spinal disorders in the waist and back, herniated disc and muscle rupture occur. Increasing machine use eliminates some of the dangers, but causes new risks. Occupational accidents such as fingers, hands and arms caught in machines can be experienced. The most important danger in olive cultivation is the operation of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The chemicals used enter the human body in three ways: skin, digestion and respiration.It causes many health problems from eye infections to lung diseases. Employees in olive cultivation are exposed to chemical, physical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial factors in the work environment. iv With in the scope of this thesis, the dangers and risks that the workers in olive cultivation are exposed to in terms of occupational health and safety were determined. The most effective protection measures have been determined to eliminate risks or reduce them to an acceptable level. Risk assessment was made by determining the risks in olive cultivation using the checklist method, one of the risk assessment methods. Science Code: Key Words: Occupational Health and Safety, Agriculture, Olive Breeding, Exposure