Emergency Medical Services Pre-Hospital Care Reports as a Data Source for Logging Injury Surveillance

ABSTRACT

Logging workers are at high risk of injury, and although data on fatal injuries exists, less is known about non-fatal injuries. The purpose of this study is to describe initial trends in logging morbidity in Maine and New Hampshire using pre-hospital care reports. Demographics and specifics of the event were recorded for each incident case. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were employed. Logging injuries (n = 70) were primarily due to trees, heavy equipment, and chainsaws. Interventions focused on heavy equipment safety (particularly slips, trips, and falls), and personal protective equipment use would be warranted based on the findings of this surveillance system. Our methods are able to capture traumatic injury in logging, in sufficient detail to prioritize interventions and to evaluate their outcomes. The system is low-cost and has the potential to be sustained over a long period.

KEYWORDS:

• Logging
• trauma
• northeast
• pre-hospital care reports

Acknowledgments

We thank the Maine Emergency Medical Services Bureau and the New Hampshire Bureau of Emergency Medical Services for the use of their data. We are grateful to the Center staff for their help with record verification and coding.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC-NIOSH) Grant Number 2U54OH007542.