Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden.
Accid Anal Prev. 2010 Nov;42(6):1729-35. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2010.04.013. Epub 2010 Jun 1.
Half of all Swedish forests are owned by private individuals, and at least 215,000 people work in these privately owned forest holdings. However, only lethal accidents are systematically monitored among self-employed forest workers. Therefore, data from the registries of the Swedish Work Environment Authority, the Labor Insurance Organization and the regional University Hospital in Umeå were gathered to allow us to perform a more in-depth assessment of the rate and types of accidents that occurred among private forest owners. We found large differences between the registries in the type and number of accidents that were reported. We encountered difficulties in defining "self-employed forest worker" and also in determining whether the accidents that did occur happened during work or leisure time. Consequently, the estimates for the accident rate that we obtained varied from 32 to > or = 4300 injured persons per year in Sweden, depending on the registry that was consulted, the definition of the sample population that was used, and the accident severity definition that was employed. Nevertheless, the different registries gave a consistent picture of the types of accidents that occur while individuals are participating in self-employed forestry work. Severe accidents were relatively common, as self-employed forestry work fatalities constituted 7% of the total number of fatalities in the work authority registry. Falling trees were associated with many of these fatal accidents as well as with accidents that resulted in severe non-fatal injuries. Thus, unsafe work methods appeared more related to the occurrence of an accident than the equipment that was being used at the time of the accident (e.g., a chainsaw). Improvement of the workers' skills should therefore be considered to be an important prevention measure that should be undertaken in this field. The challenges in improving the safety in these smallest of companies, which fall somewhere between the purview of occupational and consumer safety, are exemplified and discussed.
一半的瑞典森林为私人所有，至少有 21.5 万人在这些私人持有的森林中工作。然而，只有致命事故在自营林业工人中被系统监测。因此，我们收集了瑞典工作环境管理局、劳动保险组织和于默奥地区大学医院的登记数据，以便更深入地评估私人林主所发生的事故率和类型。我们发现各登记处报告的事故类型和数量存在很大差异。我们在定义“自营林业工人”以及确定实际发生的事故是工作时还是休闲时发生的方面遇到困难。因此，我们获得的事故发生率估计值在瑞典从 32 到>或=4300 名受伤人员/年不等，具体取决于所咨询的登记处、所用样本人群的定义以及采用的事故严重程度定义。尽管如此，不同的登记处提供了一致的信息，说明在从事自营林业工作时发生的事故类型。严重事故相对常见，因为自营林业工作死亡人数占工作管理局登记处总死亡人数的 7%。伐木事故常导致这些致命事故以及导致严重非致命伤害的事故。因此，不安全的工作方法似乎比事故发生时使用的设备更与事故的发生有关（例如链锯）。因此，应该考虑提高工人的技能，将其作为该领域的一项重要预防措施。文中举例说明了并讨论了在这些处于职业安全和消费者安全之间的最小型公司中提高安全性所面临的挑战。
