Hazardous Exposures and Injury Types Associated with the use of Industrial Lift Trucks in Sweden 2005-2007

摘要

The full text describing the total number of occupational injuries related to industrial lift trucks, reported to the Swedish national workers' compensation insurance over the three years 2005, 2006 and 2007 was subjected to an in-depth analysis. Industries like Metal Processing and Manufacturing (30%), Trades and Sales(24%) and Transport (15%) represented the majority of injuries. Storage Assistants (28%), Machine and Process Operators (18.5%) and Forklift Truck Drivers (18%) were the most common occupations in the material. The main exposure scenarios were identified with the help of SAS Textmining. software as "handle, adjust, repair; goods, material" (14%), "step into/out of" (13.5%), "driving lift truck" (53.5%), "hit by lift truck" (19%). The exposure scenario dominating the injury material for all industries and occupations was "driving lift truck" (48-62% of all injuries) and further text analysis revealed that a large part of these injuries are related to the industrial lift truck being an unsafe vehicle and the driver's position lacking safety features. It is suggested that industrial lift truck design should adopt and develop relevant aspects of the vehicle safety technology.