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OSHA has received a number of reports that two chainsaws pose a threat to worker safety.

This is the focus of a recent Utah OSHA alert. Workers lose control of the saws when the handles break. One case of severe cuts was reported. One worker reported getting burns to the fingers from a heated muffler, and another got severe bruises and a wrist pain when they lost control after the front handles broke.

The Utah OSHA alert urges employers and employees to stop using the chainsaws immediately. Five models of two chainsaw brands have been recalled, and the Utah OSHA is warning employers to pull them until they’re retrofitted for safety.

Workers have reported suffering bruising, wrist pain, and finger burns, OSHA warns. Both brands are used throughout industry, including lumbering, construction and landscaping. The saws in the alert are four models of Troy-Bilt and one Craftsman model, all powered by two-cycle gas engines from 46cc to 55cc and equipped with an 18- or 20-inch cutting blade. The Craftsman model is the “Incredi-Pull,” a 55cc, two-cycle engine with the 18-inch bar.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, warns that the chainsaws’ front handles may break when the saws are used heavily, and when that happens, the saw is difficult to control. Workers could be cut severely.

Manufacturers have voluntarily recalled the chainsaws, working with both OSHA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Meanwhile employers should take the chainsaws out of the workplace until they are retrofitted with the safety kits. Without those kits, serious injuries and even death can result.

The employers should get in contact with either the manufacturer of the saw or with OSHA for information about getting the free safety kit that includes a replacement handle and instructions.

The CPSC is working together with OSHA on the problem. Estimates are that property damage, death, and injury cost $700 billion yearly. The CPSC’s mission is to protect consumers, workers and families from unreasonable dangers of death or serious injury. It monitors some 15,000 kinds of products that present chemical, mechanical, or electrical dangers, or could hurt children.

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