Risk Assessment of Forester and Logger Injuries and Deaths in North Carolina
Grant
Overview
abstract
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Forestry is a one of the most hazardous occupations in the world due to the dangerous nature of this outdoor work. In recent years, the United States had a fatal accident rate of forestry workers 19 times higher than other industry sectors such as construction and manufacturing. In North Carolina (NC), this is also the case with workers in the forestry sector having fatalities greater than workers in construction, transportation and warehousing. The federal Workers' Compensation (WC) database is the largest repository of occupational injury data in the US and has been underutilized in occupational injury and illness surveillance and prevention research. This database will be used to study relationships between causes of injury, worker characteristics, and/or injury diagnosis. There are limited published studies on WC and foresters and only one known study exists for NC. This study proposes to analyze NC forester WC claims from 2009-2019 (source: Forestry Mutual Insurance Company) to analyze primary injury types reported by NC foresters. We expect to use the findings (in partnership with the NC Agromedicine Institute) to develop risk mitigation, intervention, and educational materials to communicate to foresters related to the injury types most frequently reported. We expect to identify and analyze emerging injury trends that could potentially be addressed in future studies on occupational risk assessment. The primary aim of this study is to provide a foundation for the use of WC data in forestry research.
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