West Virginia logger hazard awareness and injury risk perception.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Fullen M ; LundstRom, William N. ; Myers D ; Rauscher K
• Description:
  Objectives: Loggers in West Virginia are more than twice as likely to be fatally injured on the job as loggers across the nation. Since 1999 West Virginia loggers and owners have been participating in a state-wide Logger Safety program that includes a certification program and requires safety training but the majority of the educational information produced by the program is provided only to the owners. This pilot research included the development a survey tool that was deployed to collect pilot data on hazard awareness and injury risk perception data of West Virginia loggers and owners to provide insight on how the workers and owners within this industry perceive risk. Methods: Objectives included 1) to develop a survey instrument designed to assess the level of hazard awareness among loggers, including workers and owner/operators; 2) to explore the level of hazard awareness and injury risk perception among loggers and logger owner operators in West Virginia; 3) to explore differences in hazard awareness and injury risk perception; and 4) to use the survey results to identify the gaps in hazard awareness and injury risk perception in order to inform the development of future targeted interventions to reduce injury in the industry. Results: Survey data shows that 57.73% of the owners and workers agree or strongly agree that the cause of logging accidents to be the fault of the injured worker and 82.9% of workers and 86.2% of owners agreed or strongly agreed that most on the job injuries are caused by worker carelessness. Of these same workers, 87.8% agreed or strongly agreed that they are confident in knowing the hazards of logging and how to protect themselves but (53.7%) agreed or strongly agreed that to get the job done sometimes a logger must take risks that endanger their safety. Finally, 61% of the owners agreed or strongly agreed that workers sometimes do not report injuries because they fear being blamed. Conclusions: These preliminary results show evidence of a work culture that has not been educated or informed and has little to no experience in implementing an effective safety and health management system.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Dust Environmental Monitoring Occupational Health Particulate Matter Personal Protective Equipment Preceptorship Safety Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Hazard Recognition Injuries Logging Industry Logging Workers Risk Assessment Safety Practices Work Organization
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  94
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20052995
• Citation:
  National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2015, (NOIRS 2015), May 19-21, 2015, Kingwood, West Virginia. Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 2015 May; :94
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of Kentucky
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2015, (NOIRS 2015), May 19-21, 2015, Kingwood, West Virginia
• End Date:
  20270929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bc756c041f2651f970af1e454614ff638aa7a888dbcdf8f2fc404c28844eb47d3e3384934f99c49a5e1346a9e70b13427e69ff9b7094abc2272879df35dc18db
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/181735/cdc_181735_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 267.69 KB ]