With the characteristic of high pepper pillars, when picking, you have to use a ladder of 5-7 m high, while the time of harvesting pepper is usually the windy season of the Central Highlands, making the job potentially risky. Many workers while harvesting pepper fell, resulting in broken arms, legs, neck…, even death.
When harvesting pepper, pickers often have to climb high, so it is easy to fall.
Many tragic accidents
Dak Lak is entering the main pepper harvest season, this is also the time when pepper growing areas attract a large number of workers in other areas to pick pepper for hire.
Mr. Pham Ba Thuy, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ea Ning commune (Cu Kuin district) said that Ea Ning is a key pepper area of Cu Kuin district, each year there are hundreds of workers from other places to pick and hire. Picking pepper faces many risks of labor accidents due to the high characteristics of pepper gardens grown on live pillars. There are many cases of injury in the commune while picking pepper. In 2022, in the commune, there were two cases of death due to falling while picking pepper. Recently, on February 18, 2023, Mrs. TTH (SN 1974, resident of village 24) while picking pepper also had an accident that resulted in her death.
In some other pepper growing localities, occupational accidents caused by pepper picking have also occurred, such as the case of Ms. Le Thi Hong Phuong (population group of street 5, Krong Nang town). In 2022, while climbing a ladder to pick pepper (about 3 m high), he missed a step on the ladder and fell. The accident caused Ms. Phuong to break her cervical vertebrae and was treated at the Central Highlands General Hospital. It took 5 months for Mrs. Phuong to recover, but every time it was windy, she was still in pain and discomfort. “After this incident, I don’t dare to climb up anymore. Every time I harvest pepper, I also have to tie the ladder to the pepper pole firmly, and be very careful in the process of picking from above,” shared Phuong.
According to data from the Central Highlands General Hospital, every year the hospital receives from 20 to 30 cases of accidents during pepper picking. From the beginning of 2023 until now, the hospital has received 3 cases of cervical spine injury, the patient has applied to move to Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City for treatment, but the prognosis is very poor, there is a possibility of quadriplegia, respiratory paralysis, spinal cord injury…
According to Doctor Nguyen Dai Phong, Director of the Central Highlands General Hospital, the injuries when falling from a height are very serious, if the neck is broken, it will lead to quadriplegia, leaving very serious injuries and can be fatal. died shortly thereafter. In some other cases of lumbar vertebrae injury, the surgery and treatment of the disease is extremely complicated and very expensive. Some other cases are milder, broken arms, broken legs …
People check the balance of the ladder before climbing up to pick pepper.
Workers should not be subjective
Dak Lak province currently has 30,948 hectares of pepper, most farmers in the province use plants such as bamboo, cotton, acacia, etc. to make living pillars for pepper plants, so most of the pepper posts are usually very high, about 5-7 meters. Harvesting pepper requires ladders and people mainly use iron ladders to lean on pepper posts to climb up and pick. Meanwhile, the characteristics of pepper growing basins are often sunken to facilitate watering; Many pepper areas are grown on sloping, uneven land, making it difficult to fix ladders. Moreover, at the time of pepper harvest, the weather often has strong winds, potentially creating many risks of falling for people when picking pepper.
Mr. Huynh Ngoc Hai (village 3, Ea Bhok commune, Cu Kuin district) said that he has been picking pepper for many years now, the job is quite dangerous, more risky than harvesting other crops. Negligence can lead to falling, falling down the ladder when climbing up. Therefore, every time he encounters a tall pepper garden, Mr. Hai always carefully observes and checks the tree, while fixing the ladder firmly before climbing. In case of strong wind, first pick at the bottom, then use the rope to tie the ladder to the pillar to make sure, then climb up and pick it up…
For families who hire workers like Mrs. Ngo Thi My Hanh (village 3, Ea Bhok commune, Cu Kuin district), each family needs about 150 people to harvest each pepper crop. The family always advises the workers to fix the ladder firmly before climbing up to pick it. When it’s windy, don’t climb high, pay attention to safety to limit the risk of accidents and incidents. Or Nguyen Thi Thu’s family (village 8, Ea Kpam commune, Cu M’gar district) always actively cut branches and tops of live pepper poles to maintain an average height of 4-5 m; When harvesting, always check and remind workers to tie the ladder to the tree to limit the movement of the ladder…
With the current situation of occupational accidents during the pepper harvesting process, localities have also advised people to take precautions. Workers also need to raise their awareness of protecting themselves, preventing accidents and injuries during pepper harvesting.
If falling from a height, the victim may injure the spine, break the neck, etc., we must not carry or carry the victim roughly, but need to use a stretcher or hard board to move the patient with The posture is always straight. For lower limb fracture injuries, it is necessary to gently straighten the limb and fix it, and promptly take it to the nearest medical facility.” Doctor Nguyen Dai Phong, Director of Central Highlands General Hospital
According to Minh Thuan – Dinh Hang (Dak Lak Electronic Newspaper)
