Updated May 07, 2019 06:22:13 A crane traveling through the bush can cause serious injury or death to a visitor, according to new research from the University of Queensland.
Key points: The researchers found there was a higher risk of death and injury from the crane at higher altitudes The research was published in the Australian Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health and Occupation Safety Journal.
The study of about 2,000 people who had been climbing and using a crane in the south-west of Australia found that people with a higher exposure to dangerous conditions such as dust, vibration and vibration damping had a higher chance of dying or suffering injury.
“It is well established that high-risk activities such as crane operators have a greater risk of injury,” said Dr Paul McEvoy, from the School of Occupational Medicine and Health Sciences.
“The higher the exposure to risk, the higher the risk of dying and the higher risk for injury.”
Dr McEvox said the risk was similar to climbing.
“A climbing crane operator is very likely to be at risk of exposure to a high-vibration environment,” he said.
“So it is likely that they will have a very high chance of being injured or dying as a result of being exposed to that environment.”
Dr Michael Horsley, from QUT’s Centre for Health and Environmental Studies, said while people living in the northern part of the state had been exposed to more hazardous activities, the risk to visitors living in towns and cities was lower.
“That’s probably because they live in a very rural community, so they have to rely on the bush for their daily needs,” he told the ABC.
“People are not exposed to the whole range of the high-voltage environment, but they do have a much higher risk if they are in a large urban area.”
Dr Horsleys study found that exposure to low-voltages and high-frequency vibration dampers and vibration traps were the most common causes of death for crane operators in the study.
The researchers also found that workers at the construction site where the crane was built were the ones most likely to die of injury or injury, while those working in the mine where the company was mining were the least likely.
“What we’ve found is that workers are not just exposed to high-speed vibrations but also vibrations from the equipment and they are also exposed to vibration dampening,” Dr Horsys said.
Dr Hensley said the research would help to protect the health of crane operators by identifying factors such as exposure to vibration and vibrations damping, which could be used as risk assessment tools.
“We need to identify how they are working in those high-level environments and whether those factors have contributed to injury,” he explained.
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