Few would
be surprised by these statistics.
Loggers work with heavy loads in bad weather on steep slopes. They face a particular danger known in the
trade as “widow makers,” which are dead branches snagged in tree tops that work
loose during cutting.
The
fatality rate pro per 100,000 workers is 127.8.
In the past, the biggest exposure for loggers “was men on the ground hit
by falling trees or chainsaw kickback,” according to Neil Ward, Vice President
of the Forest Resources Association. He
went on to say that manual chainsaws are now hardly ever used except for upon
steep slopes.
To improve
worker safety, companies are encouraging workers to wear more visible clothing
and to use a signal system to alert logger to imminent dangers. Companies increasingly have been using
mechanical filling, in which loggers sit in a protective cabin while a steel arm
holding a chainsaw reaches out to cut the trunk.
Pennsylvania
is the nations largest producer of hardwood lumber, producing over 1 billion
board feet per year. Pennsylvania’s
logging industry provides more than 90,000 jobs, or 10 percent of
Pennsylvania’s manufacturing work force, in 2,600 companies.
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