The National Academics Review and the NORA objectives cite the inadequacy of injury and illness surveillance data for the logging industry. Logging safety and health specialists have used state and regional workers compensation data to provide more information. The participation threshold is more inclusive than the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) since nearly all firms are required to carry workers compensation insurance (WCI) due to state regulations or contract requirement from wood buyers and wood sellers. This analysis includes WCI data from 12 states (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN and VA) from NCCI. The dominant logging codes are 2701, 2702 and 2709 and usable data was available from 2005 to 2010. This data reflects changes in system safety in logging over time, provides data for both state and regionally based logger training programs. We developed injury rates using several numerators and denominators that we compared to previous WCI analysis and SOII data at the national and state level were applicable.
Keywords: logging, occupational injury, fatal injury, workers’ compensation insurance, NCCI
Introduction
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 in the world (Leigh 1987, Fosbroke et al. 1997, Myers et al. 1998). The logging industry has among the highest average annual fatality rates and the highest lifetime risk of fatal injury (Fischer et al. 2005). The logging industry suffered 131.6 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2003, more than 30 times the fatality rate for workers over all industries (BLS 2004), though a comparison of forestry fatalities from countries across Eu...
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The Logging Industry vs. The Old Growth Forests of the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Spotted Owl.
Lumber companies such as Rough and Ready Lumber Co. and The Swanson group have been providing jobs for the last several Decades. Specifically, Rough and Ready Lumber Co. began in 1922 in Cave Junction Oregon by the Krauss brothers, additionally, the Swanson Group was founded in 1951 in Glendale Oregon. In brief, these lumber companies create direct and indirect jobs for thousands of citizens in the surrounding areas of their locations. While there is a natural need for the product these companies provide, there have been several barriers preventing logging, which is necessary to keep business doors open.
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2011 Weigel and Armijos 2011). “Little empirical data are available examining the injury experience of hired crop workers in the United States (US).”(Wang, Myers et al. 2011) Work-related injury data from a national survey collected through the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) in the years 1999, 2002, 2003, and 2004 on 13,604 crop farm workers revealed that the bulk of injuries occurred to male (84%) and Mexican born (72%) workers. “The use of hand tools, falls, and lifting overexertion injuries were identified as significant causes of injury among hired crop workers. Increased injury risk was also seen for crop workers with existing health or musculoskeletal complaints....
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The history of logging goes back to the vast ponderosa pine forests of the southern Colorado Plateau in the 1870’s and 1880’s with the harvest of railroad ties and other products for construction of the transcontinental railroad. At first, the companies only wanted the big, high-grade ponderosa pine trees. They soon realized that the big trees run out and are hard to transport. In the 1920’s, new technology including chainsaws, bulldozers, and logging trucks allowed the logging companies to harvest at a much greater rate. By the depression, there were m...
Humans have been changing the Western forests' fire system since the settlement by the Europeans and now we are experiencing the consequences of those changes. During the summer of 2002, 6.9 million acres of forests was burnt up in the West (Wildland Fires, 1). This figure is two times the ten year annual average, and it does not look like next summer will be any better (Wildfire Season, 1). Foresters have been trying to restore the forests back to their original conditions by thinning and prescribed fires but have encountered countless delays. Politicians are proposing sweeping changes in bills, which have caused great controversy, in efforts to correct the problems that the Forest Service has faced in restoration projects. Are these bills necessary or is there a better solution that politicians are overlooking?
As Oregon’s timber economy continues to decline and less federal land in Oregon is being logged, more and more wood processing plants will continue to shut down, forcing numerous jobs to be lost. An impact to the economy could devastate the state. Andy Kerr Czar of the Larch Company states that a “fifty-three percent decrease has already accrued in all Oregon primary wood product jobs” (p1). This has already devastated Oregonians, forcing them to seek out other employment opportunities in the timber based economy or turn to the already overwhelmed state for financial assistance, forcing those who can’t find work or receive assistance to put up residence on the streets.
The safety measures now is strict and are regulated through the legislation act of health and safety benefits under the specific laws governed by the state and the employers are bound to follow them in order to ensure the safety and risk management to the employees in the coal mining sector.US has the proper safety and health regulation and the companies are legislated to follow the laws along with reporting and monitoring of the risk management team data’s to be worked out by higher officials giving prime importance to it. The ethics behind the imputation of proper risk management and safety guarantee makes the organizations free from unnecessary hazards and cost. This method also makes the turnover rate low for the employees as they are satisfied to work in the safe and risk free
Workplace safety is a commonly used phrase that many do not consider until an accident occurs within the workplace. Throughout the U.S., workplace injuries occur on a daily basis. This has been an issue in the workforce for many years and is still an ongoing issue. Are there laws that protect employees from an unsafe work environment; what is the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA); and how did the labor unions affect the law? In this paper these following questions will be addressed, as well as the background and driving force of OSHA.
The devastating effects of hunting are made worse by logging companies that “provide the physical and social infrastructure for this anarchic exploitation. They supply the roads, workers, and ammunition to carry out this growing un-policed commercial enterprise. In the case of the Brazilian Amazon, the building of major roads for loggers to enter inaccessible regions has caused major forest loss, which directly threatens primate populations.
In the early 1900s industrial accidents were commonplace in this country; for example, in 1907 over 3,200 people were killed in mining accidents. At this time legislation and public opinion all favored management. There were few protections for the worker's safety. Today's industrial employees are better off than their colleagues in the past. Their chances of being killed in an industrial accident are less than half of that of their predecessors of 60 years ago. According to National safety Council (NSC), the current death rate from work-related injuries is approximately 4 per 100,000, or less than a third of the rate of 50 years ago. Improvements in safety up to now have been the result of pressure for legislation to promote health and safety, the steadily increasing cost associated with accidents and injuries, and the professionalization of safety as an occupation. When the industrial sector began to grow in the United States, hazardous working conditions were commonplace. Following the Civil War, the seeds of the safety movement were sown in this country. Factory inspection was introduced in Massachusetts in 1867. In 1868 the first barrier safeguard was patented. In 1869 the Pennsylvania legislature passed a mine safety law requiring two exits from all mines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was established in 1869 to study industrial accidents and report pertinent information about hose accidents. The following decade saw little progress in the safety movement until 1877, when the Massachusetts legislature passed a law requiring safeguards for hazardous machinery. In 1877 the Employers' Liability Law was passed. In 1892, the first safety program was established in a steel plant in Illinois, in response to the explosion of a flywheel in that company.
Even more importantly, industrial logging destroys the livelihoods of forest and forest-dependent peoples who, deprived of the resources they depend on, become poor. Contrary to the official discourse, logging does not lead to development; it results in impoverishment and social disintegration. Women are disproportionately affected by logging activities, which provide them with no employment opportunities while depleting the resources they traditionally use and manage.
Chemical and fire hazards in the workplace cause serious injuries that in most cases are fatal.