Biadasz Family Donates to National Farm Medicine Center
Monday, July 31st, 2017 -- 10:11 AM
-Mike Biadasz’s death when he and 16 cattle on his family’s farm near Amherst were overcome by toxic gas released from a manure pit last year has spurred his family to help prevent a similar farm tragedy from occurring again.The Biadasz Family donated $40,000 it raised to the National Farm Medicine Center based at Marshfield Clinic Research Institute and Marshfield Clinic Center for Community Outreach establishing the Mike Biadasz Farm Safety and Education Memorial Fund. Farmers can apply for a rebate that covers the cost for a portable gas monitor device that detects gas levels and alerts them when potentially lethal levels are reached.
Biadasz was agitating a large outdoor manure pit Aug. 15, 2016, to prepare the manure to be hauled away and spread onto fields, a common farm job done a couple times a year. While manure gases are always a hazard, the situation was made worse due to weather conditions on that foggy morning, which trapped the gases close to the ground, lethally poisoning Biadasz and nearby cattle. About 4 percent of agriculture deaths in Wisconsin are attributable to manure gas and confined spaces. Overall, agriculture has a worker fatality rate more than eight times the all-industry average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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