title: The concentration of carbon monoxide in the breathing areas of workers during logging operations at the motor-manual level.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article compares 2 variants of logging technologies at the motor-manual level: variant A - cutting and delimbing by means of a petrol chainsaw, skidding with the use of a cable winch mounted on a tractor (67-74 kW); variant B - cutting by means of a petrol chainsaw, skidding, debranching and cutting to length by means of a processor aggregated with a farm tractor (61 kW).
  
  
  METHODS
  Direct dosimetry and non-parametric (moving block bootstrap) methods were used in order to specify the characteristics of the collected sets.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Bootstrap average values show that the average CO concentration at a skidding tractor operator's station during early thinning was 2.54 mg×m(-3). At processor operator's station it amounted to 10.35 mg×m(-3). Such results allow to conclude that a higher CO concentration at the above-mentioned 2 work stations was observed during early thinning. In the case of a petrol chainsaw operator, it was observed that the permissible exposure limit (23 mg×m(-3)) was exceeded and the short-term permissible exposure limit (117 mg×m(-3)) was not. The average concentration value for a chainsaw operator working individually during late thinning interventions was substantially lower (15.01 mg×m(-3)), which results from the lack of technological pressure that can be observed while cooperating with a processor operator.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The risk increases along with conditions that generate the concentration of exhaust produced by 2-stroke petrol chainsaw engines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest and Wood Utilization, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Kraków, Poland, rlleszcz@cyf-kr.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leszczyński
mesh_terms: D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000032:analysis*; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000032:analysis*; D016468:Forestry; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D011044:Poland; D020711:Threshold Limit Values
chemical_list: D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational; D002248:Carbon Monoxide