Mechanized Wood Extraction: Impacts on Operators’ Hearing Health

Abstract

The activity of the mechanized extraction of wood, carried out by means of self-propelled forest machines, consists of moving the wood cut inside the forest stand from the planted forests to the roadside. During displacements, these machines normally travel over forest residues and stumps, which can demand greater motor power from the engine, in addition to the possible increase in occupational noise levels. In this context, we evaluated whether, when operating different self-propelled forest machines in the wood extraction of planted Eucalyptus forests, operators are exposed to different levels of occupational noise, especially to thresholds above those established for prevention purposes. Occupational noise data were collected during the workday, weighing six self-propelled forest machine operators who performed the wood-extraction operation, performed by two forwarders, two self-loading tractors, and two grapple skidders, in three areas with Eucalyptus plantations located in the southeastern region of Brazil. The sound-pressure level was collected using two integrative meters following the strategic measurement criterion recommendation for the whole day in the guidelines of the acoustic determination of occupational noise exposure and analyzed according to the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists. Operators of forest machines for the mechanized extraction of wood were exposed to occupational noise levels above the recommended level, which can affect health and well-being; this occupation also required above-average levels of attention during the execution of work activities.

A Simulation Study of Noise Exposure in Sledge-Based Cable Yarding Operations

“…In skidding operations, for instance, changes in the magnitude of pre-skidding and skidding distances contribute to a change in the work elements' share in a work cycle [21], which also applies to cable yarding, as demonstrated by this study. Accounting for such a variation to characterize noise exposure is challenging if conventional studies are used, as it would necessitate measurements carried out to cover all the potential variations in operational factors, in addition to the type of machine used for extraction [29,30]. For sledge-based cable yarding, this is virtually impossible since it would involve using many resources in collecting and processing data, and previous work has shown that it is difficult to develop meaningful models which relate noise exposure to distance when conducting a study using this approach [21].…”

Forestry Ergonomics Publications in the Last Decade: A Review

“…The most represented machines and tools were chainsaw (37), skidder (17), pre-harvesting tools (16), harvester (14), forwarder (12), and farm tractor (12). Overall, almost onethird of all records were noted in Brazilian articles (Figure A2) where the most records were observed for skidder (8), feller buncher (7), harvester (6), pre-harvesting tools (6), chainsaw (5), and forwarder (5). Out of 25 countries, chainsaw was noted in articles from 17 countries including Brazil and Croatia with five records, Poland and Romania with four, and Iran and Italy with three records each.…”

“…Of the European countries, Italy has the most publications (12). Other countries with five or more articles include Poland (8), Romania (7), and Croatia (5).…”

“…Risk factors included in forestry ergonomics publications are substantial and their dynamic appearance is observed in this review. Regardless of time period or harvesting systems, "traditional" risk factors like noise [3][4][5][6][7], vibration [8][9][10][11], and workload [12][13][14]…”