Massey Ferguson chemical and pesticide protection

Agricultural tractors and machinery work in  hazardous environments subjecting the operators to a variety of hazards from life threatening dusts to poisonous chemicals and pesticides.

I can remember driving tractors back in the 1970’s with very basic Lambourne or similar cabs and most only had roll over bars for protection and I personally can’t remember any that had ventilation fans, cab filtration or air conditioning systems.

Moving onto the 1980’s my first air conditioning repair was to a Ford TW25 and tractors were now being manufactured with safety cabs  fitted with heating and ventilation systems with air filters and air conditioning systems for operator comfort.

The modern day tractor are now fitted with much safer cabs and refinements to make the operators job more productive,efficient,comfortable but more importantly safer for the operator, however the level of operator safety against hazardous dusts, aerosols, poisonous chemicals and pesticides still falls way below the protection levels that are needed for adequate protection.

European union regulation EN 15695-1/2 goes some way to addressing the problems by stipulating that dusts, aerosols and gaseous contaminants that arise during the use of toxic substances and liquid fertilizers are not permitted to enter the vehicle cabins.

Within regulation EN15695-1/2  basic levels of cab protection are defined in categories from 1 to 4.

Category 1.   No defined level of protection against hazardous substances.

Category 2. Protection against dust.

Category 3. Protection against dust and aerosols.

Category 4. Protection against dusts,aerosols and vapours.

Current standards under EN 15695-1/2 for Category 4 cabs is that the cabs internal pressure should be no less than 20 Pascals during operation and capable of achieving 50 Pascals as a maximum whilst providing protection efficiency greater than 98%.