Exposure to wood dust: regulatory studies and statistics

INAIL updates the accident picture in the healthcare sector furniture manufacturing and woodworking in the latest issue of INAIL DATA, the monthly publication which reports the analyzes of various production sectors. These are two sectors particularly exposed to accident phenomenon in the manufacturing industry sector.

We focus in particular on related data workers’ exposure to wood dust referring both to the most recent legislation, updated in 2023, and to the data on those exposed in Italy reported in the latest INAIL Document updating the accident and technopathic estimates of those exposed to hardwood dust in Italy.

What is hardwood dust?

Hardwood dust is classified, at European Community level, as a carcinogenic agent (Directive 2004/37/EC). Recently, on the basis of the information recorded in the SIREP database, INAIL carried out an estimate of the workers potentially exposed to this agent in the sectors of economic activity at greatest risk. The objective is to revise the estimate with data updated to 2023.

Exposure to wood dust: the legislation to protect the health and safety of workers

With interministerial decree of 10 October 2023 Ministry of Labor and Health have updated the tables of occupational diseases in Industry and Agriculture, including, for processes that expose to the action of wood dust, bronchial asthma caused by the action of allergenic wood dust in addition to neoplastic diseases (carcinoma of the nasal cavity, carcinoma of the paranasal sinuses and carcinoma of the nasopharynx).

Furthermore, from January 2023 the occupational exposure limit value (Vlep) for hardwood dust has been lowered from 5 to 2 mg/m3. The VLEP reported in the d. lgs. 81/2008 refers to the inhalable fraction of the aerosol and if hardwood dust is mixed with other wood dust, the limit value applies to all wood dust present in the mixture in question.

INAIL reports this in the latest issue of “INAIL Data” in May dedicated to the “Furniture Manufacturing” sector and the woodworking industry.

The INAIL document reports the accident and occupational disease statistics of the two sectors.

Furniture manufacturing: accidents and occupational diseases in 2022

The INAIL data refers to 2022 when the injuries reported in the furniture manufacturing sector were 3,450, 2.3% more than the 3,373 of the previous year. A recovery after the Covid-19 stop with the resumption of manufacturing activities for a sector that counts 4.3% of insured companies in the manufacturing industry (around 17 thousand out of a total of almost 399 thousand) and with over 130 thousand insured employees per year. A sector that represents just over 3% of workers in the entire sector.

The accident frequency for the three-year period 2019-2021 is equal to 15.71 compensated accidents per thousand employees, higher than the 12.74 in manufacturing but in line with the 15.26 in industry and services.

Causes of accidents: more than 80% of cases confirmed at work derive from loss of control of the machines and also from body movements leading to both internal and external physical injuries.

The occupational diseases reported in 2022 were 546, 96 more than in 2018 and growing in the last two years of the five-year period. 65.8% of the average of those defined positively concerns the osteomuscular system and connective tissue, according to the international Icd-10 classification (178 out of a total of 260 for 2022), followed by pathologies of the nervous system (22.0%) and those of the ear and mastoid apophysis with 21 events in 2022 (9.1% on average over the five years).

Wood industry: accidents and occupational diseases

In the wood industry the levels of risk and severity are higher than average, reports INAIL

The sector has 25,298 companies with 94,384 employees.

There were 3002 injuries, up after the contraction recorded in 2020 but still below the levels of 2018 and 2019. Approximately one injury in 10 occurs during the cutting and planing phasesthe rest during woodworking

1,556 cases occurred during the manufacture of other wood carpentry and joinery products for construction, mostly doors and windows (1,051 cases).

With regard to occupational diseases in 2022 447 were reported, the highest number since 2018. The use of often artisanal and manual instruments favors the onset of pathologies of the osteomuscular system and connective tissue, which in 2022 represent 70% of the total complaints.

The other pathologies are those of the nervous system (14%, 9 out of 10 carpal tunnel syndromes) and ear diseases (11%, primarily hearing loss due to the noise produced by machines). Also worth mentioning are occupational tumors, including those due to inhalation of wood dust: 44 cases in the five-year period involved the respiratory system, out of 72 total complaints.

Exposure to hardwood dust in Italy

Also INAIL published in 2024 a study on professional exposure in Italy to hardwood dust entitled: “UPDATE OF THE ESTIMATE OF WORKERS POTENTIALLY EXPOSED TO HARDWOOD DUST IN ITALY”.

The research starts from the data updated to 31 December 2023, from the information system on occupational exposures to carcinogens (SIREP): 209,421 workers potentially exposed to hardwood dust were estimated, of which 79% were men (165,443).

Most potentially exposed workers continue to be employed mainly in the wood industry (60,832 exposed) and in furniture manufacturing

The current estimate of 209,421 workers potentially exposed to hardwood dust shows an increase of approximately 22% over the previous estimate.

• In the wood industry, the largest number of exposed workers is employed in the manufacture of wooden doors and windows
• the largest proportion of exposures registered in SIREP can be found in the manufacture of veneer sheets and wooden panels.

Biological risk: books, courses and informative posters

InSic suggests among Health and safety books published by EPC Editore, the following ABC for workers And volumes dedicated to biological risk.