employer-financed Work Environ-
ment Fund. The committees review
all proposals from researchers to the
Fund. The Fund is now spending
more than $1 million to teach
Swedish union representatives both
to evaluate those proposals and to
develop more of their own.

One work environment research
group has been working in 15 saw-
mills, a similar group has concen-
trated on woodworking factories
such as furniture and prefab housing
plants, and a third has worked in
forestry under another $1 million
Fund grant.

These groups have succeeded
because they include not only engin-
eers, professors, doctors, and psy-
chologists, but also representatives of
the unions, employers, and equip-
ment manufacturers. They have
demonstrated metliods for control-
ling noise, dust, chemicals, and other
hazards, as well as for redesigning
jobs to make them less stressful.

In contrast to the North Amer-
ican system, in which research is
mainly distributed to other research-
ers, the Swedish groups’ achieve-
ments are being explained to the
unions’ regional safety represen-
tatives—at Work Environment Fund
expense—and the representatives
will, in turn, educate local union

i hes Bengt Ager, a professor who has

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

13

e are forming a circle of communication between those
who study and design equipment, those who make it, those
who buy it, and those who use it every day.’

served as leader of these research
groups, told the IWA visitors that,
‘“We are forming a circle of commu-
nication between those who study
and design industrial equipment,
those who make it, those who buy it,
and those who use it every day.’’

Throughout their two-week tour
in Sweden, IWA group members had
many chances to see how the process
Ager described has paid off in reduc-
ing workplace hazards:

eNoise and dust. The Swedish
standard for average exposure to
noise over an eight-hour shift is 85
decibels—only half as damaging to
the ear as the 90 decibels allowed in
the U.S. and Canada.

Noise control in logging has been
achieved mainly by mechanization.
With smaller trees to work with than
in western North America, the
Swedes are able to do much of their
falling, bucking, loading, forward-
ing, and hauling by machine.
Operators are provided fully air-
conditioned cabs which reduce noise
and dust and allow them to do the job
comfortably and efficiently in all
seasons.

At the Anebyhus sawmill, work
environment researchers have helped
the safety committee make dramatic
improvements. Acoustical tile and a
concrete-wood sound absorbant mix-
ture are used on the ceiling and walls
to reduce the spread of sound from

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conveyor belts. For purposes of both
noise and dust control, saws are com-
pletely enclosed in housings the size
of small rooms, which are entered on-
ly for maintenance. Wood dust levels
in the mill air are below one milligram
per cubic meter.

Saw blades at Anebyhus are
chosen for the best design for noise
control; adjustments in the angle of
the teeth can mean a reduction of 5
decibels when cutting, 10 when idle,
according to research engineer
Anders Soderavist.

“A lot of things we saw, like con-
trols for your noise or your dust, were
simple, things anybody could under-
stand,’’ reported tour member Joel
Hembree of IWA Local 3-536.

“‘Research doesn’t have to be
some complicated thing, only for
what you’d call ‘experts,’’’ he said.
“A lot of what they’re doing is just
common sense. And if they can do it,
so can we.’’

At a Wood Research Center
established by the employers and
unions in order to find cheaper
hazard control methods for small
businesses, the IWA group was
shown a demonstration system for
exhausting dust from a saw. The
guard was placed as close as physical-
ly possible to the blade so dust would
have no way to escape. The suction
hose was placed below the saw at the
point where the blade’s centrifugal

LT he

be

LEFT: Saws at the Anebyhus
mill are enclosed in room-size
housings (background) which
are entered only for mainte-
nance. UPPER RIGHT: Engi-
neer Anders Soderqvist and
Joel Hembree, Local 3-536,
discuss the enclosed ventila-
tion system above a band saw.
LOWER RIGHT: A guard auto-
matically comes above the table
when this saw blade is raised to
cutting position.

force was throwing off the dust. Suc-
tion occurred only when the saw was
cutting; when it was in idle position,
the suction cut off.

This system effectively reduces
both dust and noise levels. There is
less noise from ventilation when the
saw is idle. Proper placement of the
suction hose means that ventilation
noise when the saw is cutting is also
reduced because the amount of air
needed is less.

“‘We are not preoccupied with
standards, standards, standards,’’
said Rolf Ottosson, employer repre-
sentative on the center’s board.
“Standards are necessary, but they
only tell you the state of scientific
knowledge today, and they may
always become more strict tomorrow
when our knowledge changes. So we
are trying to use our design expertise
now to anticipate problems and to
find ways to modify our processes in
the best way possible.”’

eAccidents. The Swedish Nation-
al Safety Board, similar to OSHA in
the U.S. and the provincial workers’
compensation boards in Canada,
does issue standards, and its research
shows that they make a difference.
For example, chain saw-related hand
and wrist injuries in the logging in-
dustry were reduced by 90 percent
between 1967 and 1976, primarily as a
result of new requirements for hand
guards. A foot and leg injury reduc-