/RPT/LABOUR: ‘Safety Makes Dollars and Sense’ in Forest Work, Says ILO

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Sep 24 1997 (IPS) - Thousands of loggers are killed, injured and maimed every year due to inadequate safety measures in one of the world’s most dangerous jobs.

The chainsaw is one of the most dangerous tools ever invented, warns an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report presented to industry experts this week in Geneva.

The study adds that the techniques used by logging companies threaten the environment and reduce productivity.

The ILO is pushing the idea among environmentalists, governments and logging enterprises that protecting forests and loggers and increasing productivity go hand in hand.

At a meeting held under ILO auspices, some 30 experts from Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Gabon, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and the United States – the 10 leading exporters of forestry products – began to meet Tuesday to discuss the adoption of a new Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Forest Work.

“Overall the Code of Practice should help to create better conditions of work and higher productivity in the industry,” says Kari Tapiola, Deputy Director General of the ILO. “Safety and training must be made an integral part of company rules and management. Also, it is natural to merge safety and health and the environment together. Our hope is that this new Code of Practice will provide the means to do just that.”

In almost all countries that have a logging industry, forest work is one of the most dangerous activities, along with the mining and construction sectors, due in large part to inadequate safety measures, the ILO report underlines.

The accident rate and the percentage of accidents that are fatal is two to three times higher than in other industrial sectors. In the United States, for example, the probability of loggers getting killed on the job during a 25-year career is 1:20.

But the ILO stresses that the situation is much worse in many tropical countries, where workers frequently retire early or change jobs due to the precarious and exhausting living and working conditions in the jungle, insufficient training, and job- related disabilities and illnesses.

Safety problems have also been increasing in recent years in eastern European countries.

As well as multiplying the risks to which workers are exposed, inadequate logging techniques also hurt the environment, the ILO study points out. Careful control of felling direction, for instance, saves young growth and reduces damage to forest soil and water courses as well as protecting workers.

Logging is the most dangerous forest work, accounting for more than 70 percent of all accidents and practically all deaths. Even in expert hands, the chainsaw is one of the most potentially dangerous tools ever invented.

While cuts and open wounds are the most common type of injury, chainsaws can also cause deafness and other physical damage from vibrations. The noise of a chainsaw running at full potency causes irreparable damage to hearing after only 15 minutes.

The report says the tool will continue to be the main risk factor in forest work. Its use, widespread in developed countries, will increase in the developing world as the proportion of timber coming from plantations rises.

The new ILO-sponsored Code draws on international experience in recent years which suggests that the traditional exclusive focus on technical aspects such as machine design and on the workplace was bound to fail.

Forests are not factories with a stable working environment and highly standardised work processes. Making this difficult environment safer requires cooperation of all involved in the sector, the ILO stresses.

A campaign is to be launched to make the Code better known and to apply it. Safety is not a moral issue alone, the ILO stresses. In some countries accident insurance premiums are a major cost factor, and losses in direct and indirect cost of accidents far exceed those of prevention programmes. Backed up with research evidence, one of the arguments will be that “safety makes dollars and sense.”