Risk Assessment and Recommendations for Forester Exposure to Hymenoptera

ABSTRACT

Objective: Ants, bees, hornets, wasps, and yellow jackets (insects in Order Hymenoptera) are potentially a serious concern to outdoor workers, as the venom from their stings can cause life-threatening allergic reactions. This study assessed the impacts of Hymenoptera stings and related worker training regimes of forestry workers across the United States (US).

Methods: A survey was distributed to nearly 2,000 outdoor workers in the forestry industry from four US regions (South, West, Northeast, and Midwest).

Results: Ants are a primary concern in the South, with >75% of participants reporting ant stings within the last 5 years. Bees, hornets, wasps, and yellow jackets are a concern for surveyed foresters in all US regions, with 60–70% and 75–93% of participants, respectively, having been stung by bees or hornets/wasps/yellow jackets within the last 5 years. Despite such a large number of participants experiencing stings, nearly 75% of participants were not concerned about being stung or their reaction to stings. Approximately, 70% of participants reported not having received any safety training related to Hymenoptera from their employers.

Conclusion: No significant difference was shown in the number of foresters stung at work between safety trained and non-safety trained participants. However, it was significantly more likely for participants to carry a first aid kit if they had received Hymenoptera safety training. Consequently, more comprehensive and frequent training should be considered to help reduce risk of exposure to Hymenoptera.

KEYWORDS:

• Sting
• injury
• occupational health
• outdoor worker
• forester

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the helpful comments of three anonymous reviewers that improved the manuscript. We also appreciate the feedback and support of R. Tutor of the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Institution and Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

This study was approved by East Carolina University Institutional Review Board project #15-001105. Participant information was de-identified and results were reported in aggregate to ensure confidentiality.

Additional information

Funding

No external funding was used to support this project.