After three farm workers were killed from a toxic gas leak at a mushroom farm in Britsh Columbia in 2008, agriculture workers in the province are urged to take a mandatory two-day training session on occupational health and safety.  

Farmers in Alberta need to take the same precautions.  It may sound simple, but Laurel Aitkin, Farm Safety Coordinator with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development says it's really important to make sure everyone on the farm has training for what they are going to do.  

"There is so many different types of farming and so many different jobs and tasks we do within those different areas, so you can't assume someone coming to work with you from another farm has the training and has the knowledge of what they're going to do," Aitkin explains. "It's really important we make safety training a big part of the job when someone new comes onto the farm."

In order to avoid a tragedy like the deaths in British Columbia, Aitkin says it's important to identify the confined spaces on your farm. She says you need to put up signs and make sure there is limited access to those areas.  

"Make sure all staff who are going to be working around those spaces or entering them, have had training," Aitkin says. "Make sure your putting testing procedures and confined space procedures into place wherever you have identified that you're dealing with a confined space."

You can go onto Alberta Agriculture's website and look at all of the farm safety information available there, and find safety training courses available as well.