Logger Safety Initiative: Findings from the Initial Safety Consultations

Details

• Personal Author:
  Wuellner S
• Description:
  To improve the safety culture of the manual logging industry throughout Washington State, private landowners, the Washington Contract Loggers Association, logging companies, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, and the Washington Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) partnered to create the Washington State Logger Safety Initiative (LSI). Participation in LSI is voluntary. Employers who elect to participate are required to undergo an annual consultation with the L&I Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). During the consultation, DOSH evaluates each cutter and logging side to document existing hazards and evaluate the employer's safety and health program. Here we present findings from consultations conducted for initial entry into the LSI program. Key Findings: Safety and Health Program Assessment: 1. Of the 105 employers who received Safety and Health Program Assessment (SHPA) scores, most performed well: 10 (9.5%) received a perfect score and 77 (73.3%) needed only minimal improvement on one or more items in the assessment. 2. Injury rates generally correlated with SHPA scores, with higher rates of traumatic injuries among employers with poorer scores, and lower rates of traumatic injuries among employers with the best scores. 3. Among employers with lower SHPA scores, rates of traumatic injuries did not change from the years before the assessment to the years after. Hazards: 1. Hazards were identified at 90% of employers, and serious hazards were identified at 74% of employers. 2. The most common serious hazards involved chainsaws (29% of employers) and PPE (28% of employers). 3. Rates of traumatic injuries were slighter higher among employers with the greatest number of hazards. Conclusion: Even among the employers who joined LSI - a group with low injury rates relative to employers who declined to participate in LSI ¡V there exists a range of safety performance. Although logging hazards were documented in nearly every consultation, no hazard was present at every site, suggesting that employers can control whether logging hazards are present in their work environment. There is room for improved workplace safety in manual logging, which should lead to lower injury rates among the risk class. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Education Environmental Exposure Forestry Hazardous Substances Mortality Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Preventive Medicine Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace

  More +
• Keywords:
  Accidents Exposure Levels Fatalities Hazard Identification Hazards Injuries Injury-prevention Logging Industry Logging Safety Logging Workers Personal-protection Personal Protective Equipment PPE Preventive Measures Risk Factors Safety-education Safety-measures Safety-practices Statistical Analysis Training Traumatic Injuries Work-environment Workers

  More +
• Publisher:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20058286
• Citation:
  Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, 11-05-2018, 2018 Jun; :1-12
• Contact Point Address:
  SHARP Program, Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, PO Box 44330, Olympia, WA 98504-4330
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Logger safety initiative: findings from the initial safety consultations
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:51325c4d466af13032aff87cab9ab90160ef3bbefb7fd315ce6cb5a096da9b6ea8939f82ba9db77d7c2f0b6530ad541e845ab3b27bee135c34bbe8c2e303dcac
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/221413/cdc_221413_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 775.61 KB ]