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Evaluating the effectiveness of a logger safety training program in reducing injuries to loggers.

Bell JL

NOIRS 2003-Abstracts of the National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2003, October 28-30, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, PA: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 2003 Oct; :56

20024173

With an estimated lifetime fatality risk of 62. 7 per 1,000 full-time workers, it is well documented that logging is one of the most hazardous occupations and industries in which to work. The state of West Virginia based on 1992-97 Bureau of Labor Statistics CFOI data, has one of the highest logging fatality rates in the nation. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a logger safety training program in reducing injuries to loggers. The voluntary program (the West Virginia [WV] Loggers Safety Initiative [LSI]) provided safety training for all members of enrolled logging companies, tailored to their primary work tasks. The program ran for four years, from July 1999 - June 2003. During this same time period, the rest of the WV logging industry, not in the LSI program, showed a general increasing trend in both total and struck-by injury claims rates. Eighty-nine companies enrolled in the LSI for at least part of the 4-year period. These 89 companies grouped together showed a significant decline in both total injuries and in struck-by injuries over the time period from July 1999 - June 2003. Of these 89 companies, 36 companies were present for the duration of the program. They enrolled in Year 1, and remained in the program through Year 4. When examined separately, this group of36 showed no trend in overall injuries, but a declining trend in struck-by injuries. Additionally, this group had a lower total injury rate and a lower struck-by injury rate in comparison to companies that enrolled in the LSI program for less than 4 years. These preliminary results suggest this training program may be useful for reducing struck-by injuries (of major importance because they' tend to be the most expensive and the most potentially fatal of all injury types).

Logging-workers; Safety-programs; Training; Injury-prevention; Injuries; Risk-factors; Occupational-hazards; Mortality-rates; Forestry; Forestry-workers; Traumatic-injuries

20031028

Abstract; Conference/Symposia Proceedings

Construction

2004

DSR

Research Tools and Approaches: Intervention Effectiveness Research

NOIRS 2003-Abstracts of the National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2003, October 28-30, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

WV; PA