Accidents at Work in the Wood and Cork Manufacturing Sector

This work analyses the occupational accidents in Portugal in the economic activity subsector of Manufacture of Wood and Products of Wood and Cork (subsector DD), in the period 2002-2006 (inclusive). The study begins with a broad analysis, where the “typical accident” is identified and the main indicators of the subsector are presented. The second phase of the work is more detailed and is designed to establish the difference of patterns between fatal and non-fatal accidents and to typify the most problematic modalities of accident. Finally, the cause-effect mechanisms of the “typical accident”, fatal and non-fatal, are characterized by means of two statistical tests (R coefficient and Phi coefficient). The results obtained by the two statistical tests do not differ much from each other; nevertheless, if the application of the Phi coefficient takes more time than the application of the R coefficient, it gives more freedom in the choice of the limits of the relationship’s strength. For the subsector DD, the results obtained allowed to identify one fatal “typical accident” and two non-fatal, of which, one is the same for both categories.