Timber Companies Don’t Like New Safety Rules Osha Says Loggers Must Be Provided Proper Gear And Know First Aid, Cpr

New federal rules that require tougher protective clothing for loggers are drawing loud complaints from Pacific Northwest forest companies.

Under regulations adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and effective immediately, loggers must be equipped with hard hats, face masks, gloves and boots that can protect their feet from chain saws.

In addition, logging employers must ensure that all their workers are certified to administer first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, compared with 20 percent under the previous regulations.

Agency officials, who met with logging company owners from six states to discuss the issue in May, said the rules are needed because logging is one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations.

Owners say they were blind-sided.

“Coming out of that meeting in Seattle, we thought we had a pretty good understanding of what the new OSHA rules would say,” said Keith Olson, executive director of the Montana Loggers Association, “but our first reading of the rules indicates that the OSHA people didn’t listen as well as we thought they did.”

Seven loggers and two logging truck drivers died in Washington last year, according to the Washington Contract Loggers Association. There are about 10,000 loggers statewide.

“There’s always been a tradition in this industry that a logger showed up for work with a hard hat, boots and gloves,” said Bill Pickell, general manager of the loggers association.

“Now the employer has to provide the hard hat and the gloves, even though the logger may move on to another job the very next day,” he said.

The rules had been scheduled to take effect Feb. 9 but were delayed because of industry objections in Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Montana.

Industry leaders complained that the face-protection standard was too restrictive, and that workers should have an option of wearing either protective glasses, goggles or face mask, Pickell said.

Such masks create their own safety hazard by limiting peripheral vision, he said.