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Wednesday, June 05, 2019

Logging safety issues examined in academic journal

An academic journal has devoted a special issue to the dangers in the logging and forestry industries.

It's a big problem: "The United States is the top timber-producing nation in the world, but that distinction comes with a cost: Harvesting timber is America’s most dangerous occupation. Over the past decade, an average of 66 loggers died each year, at a fatal injury rate more than 30 times the all-industry average," Scott Heiberger writes for the National Farm Medicine Center. "Loggers’ work is physically demanding. It is carried out in remote locations amidst unpredictable weather and rough terrain. Loggers deal with massive weights and irresistible momentum of falling, rolling, and sliding trees and logs. Most injuries involve trees and other falling objects."

The current issue of the Journal of Agromedicine is all about health and safety issues in the timber and forestry industries. That includes immigrant workers, technology, injury data collection, regional logging systems, firefighting, tree planting, and pruning, Heiberger writes. Read the 13 articles here.

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