Massachusetts Lumber Company/Sawmill Laborer Dies Following Strike in the Head

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Massachusetts Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Project (Massachusetts FACE) ; Massachusetts. Department of Public Health. Occupational Health Surveillance Program
• Description:
  A 30 year old male Massachusetts lumber company/sawmill laborer died on April 29th, 1992, approximately one month after being struck in the head during routine maintenance operations. The victim was sweeping sawdust and waste wood debris from the floor of a sawmill chipper room when he struck his head on an operating chipper machine shaker table. Suffering a headache as a result, the victim left work in the middle of the day. Complaining of headache and nausea, the victim was admitted to the regional hospital the following day for treatment of a concussion, subsequently discharged, and cleared to return to work at a later date. Nine days following his return to work, the victim was again hospitalized and soon died from a brain aneurysm. The Massachusetts FACE Investigator concluded that to prevent similar occurrences in the future, employers should: 1. Select and appoint a designated safety person to develop, implement, and enforce a comprehensive safety program that includes, but is not limited to, the use of head protection and the dangers associated with work in the lumber/sawmill industry. 2. Contact sawmill equipment manufacturer(s) to design or assist in the design of equipment safeguarding systems that would prevent employee exposure to blunt, moving, or revolving machinery parts. 3. Restrict use of nonessential, hearing prohibitive personal equipment when working in areas that are typically known to be significantly hazardous. 4. Develop and implement a medical monitoring protocol to ensure that employees suffering potentially dangerous injuries, especially blows to the head, seek immediate medical surveillance and determine, if possible, if all medical recommendations have been followed prior to authorizing return to work.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Forestry Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Injuries Injury-prevention Lumber-industry Lumber-industry-workers Medical-monitoring Medical-screening Medical-services Medical-treatment OSHA Region 1 Protective-measures Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-monitoring Safety-personnel Safety-programs Sawmill-workers Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE92MA013
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  5 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028383
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2007-106554
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 92MA013, 1992 Oct ; :1-4
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1993
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/09/30
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0e27597bba43bb57a8b663d7d90d49ed7e600677ea8fed82d6abfdddb68b15f505c4522db60586aed30e39d465c3f16e3cf9488c14a37533ffb8fd8632d0d5b0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166736/cdc_166736_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 14.78 KB ]