Today is Workers Memorial Day in Canada and the U.S., a day marked to raise awareness of worker safety and remember those who have been killed or injured on the job.
The absence of three fingers on my grandfather’s right hand was a constant reminder to me to be careful with saws. He managed to work as a carpenter all his life, despite an accident with a power saw as a young adult. Young people have the highest incident of injury on the job. Their lack of experience can be deadly.
My great-grandfather, a logger, was killed in the backwoods when a tree fell on him earlier last century. Even today, despite safer equipment and safety training, American logging workers have a death rate of 86.4 per 100,000 workers. If you compare this to a national fatality rate of 3.4, it’s extremely high and is only second to fishing as a hazardous occupation.
Felling trees is a difficult task that requires alertness and know-how. Whether your tool is a handsaw, an axe or a chainsaw, the potential for disaster is great, especially if you’re a bit accident prone like me. If people who are trained to cut trees encounter danger, it’s likely that homeowners pruning or cutting trees on the weekend would be at even greater risk of injury.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety offers some excellent guidelines to follow, whether you are cutting down a tree or just trimming off some limbs. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
Receive by email or subscribe in a reader
Leave a Reply