An investigation on major physical hazard exposures and health effects of forestry vehicle operators performing wood logging processes

Forest vehicle operators are occupationally exposed to combined hazards such as noise, whole-body vibration(WBV), adverse microclimate, and carbon monoxide. Such combined exposures may not only increase the risk of accidents but they may also have some synergized effects on the developments of major occupational diseases of the workers, which have been among the major concerns of the occupational safety and health for the forestry sector in Romania. This study investigated the combined exposures through measuring and analyzing the equivalent acoustic level LAeq (dB(A)), whole-body vibration (A(8)-value), working microclimate, and carbon monoxide inside the worker's cabin in the breathable area. The vehicles considered in this study included skidding vehicles dedicated to wood exploitation (type I) and agricultural tractors modified for logging (type II). The cumulative distribution function of each types of exposure was calculated in the analyses. This study found that the noise and WBV exposures had large probabilities of exceeding the permissible limits: for noise, 75% for vehicle type I, and 55% for vehicle type II; for the WBV, 63% for type I vehicles, and 72% for type II vehicles. The measured data suggest that the microclimate and carbon monoxide exposures were within their limits in the process of collecting wood. This study also found that 27% of workers participated in the study were detected with occupational diseases. Based on these findings, some intervention methods were recommended to control the exposures and health effects. •The analyses refers to skidding vehicle dedicated to wood exploitation and agricultural tractors modified for logging.•Probability to exceed the imposed limit by norms is very high for noise exposure and WBV hazards.•The medical evaluation shows that 90% of the workers were diagnosed with several professional or occupational pathologies.