%0 Journal Article
%T Occupational fatal injuries associated with mobile hand-fed wood chippers
%J American journal of industrial medicine
%D 2018
%A Zhu, Julia
%A Gelberg, Kitty
%V 61
%N 12
%P 978-985
%X BACKGROUND: Workers are killed every year in wood chipper-related incidents despite the repeated hazard warnings. In-depth, comprehensive, and up-to-date studies are needed to identify causal, risk, and contributing factors and assess the current control measures so that an effective and proactive prevention approach can be developed. <br><br>METHODS: Cases were identified from four online databases and manually reviewed to characterize and categorize the fatal events. <br><br>RESULTS: The study identified 113 wood chipper-related worker deaths (1982-2016). The victims were killed in struck-by (57), caught-in (41), motor vehicle (7), electrical (4), fall (2), and heat stroke (2) incidents while performing chipper-related tasks. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Chipper-related worker deaths are preventable. Young and inexperienced workers may be at higher risk for caught-in deaths. The current feed wheel control devices are not effective for workers to self-rescue. Fully automatic feed wheel stop devices are needed to prevent caught-in incidents.<br><br>© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I John Wiley and Sons
%@ 0271-3586
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22913