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Work‐related injuries in the Alaska logging industry, 1991‐2014
Author(s) -
Springer Yuri P.,
Lucas Devin L.,
Castrodale Louisa J.,
McLaughlin Joseph B.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.22784
Subject(s) - medicine , logging , occupational safety and health , injury prevention , poison control , occupational injury , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , demography , medical emergency , environmental health , forestry , geography , pathology , sociology
Background Although loggers in Alaska are at high risk for occupational injury, no comprehensive review of such injuries has been performed since the mid‐1990s. We investigated work‐related injuries in the Alaska logging industry during 1991‐2014. Methods Using data from the Alaska Trauma Registry and the Alaska Occupational Injury Surveillance System, we described fatal and nonfatal injuries by factors including worker sex and age, timing and geographic location of injuries, and four injury characteristics. Annual injury rates and associated 5‐year simple moving averages were calculated. Results We identified an increase in the 5‐year simple moving averages of fatal injury rates beginning around 2005. While injury characteristics were largely consistent between the first 14 and most recent 10 years of the investigation, the size of logging companies declined significantly between these periods. Conclusions Factors associated with declines in the size of Alaska logging companies might have contributed to the observed increase in fatal injury rates.