6. Conclusion and outlook

For several years now, all those involved (public authorities, employers, workers) have been mobilized to reduce the number and impact of occupational accidents and illnesses, in the world of workshops in general and woodworking in particular. Although some progress has been made, it has to be admitted that the results achieved in the wood processing sector are not yet up to target. There are two main reasons for this apparent contradiction:

• all awareness campaigns have the effect of increasing the number of registered illnesses. Since declaring an illness is a voluntary and personal act, it is obvious that prevention has the direct effect of encouraging people to declare their illness. Thus, for a constant number of patients, the number of declarations increases;

• certain pathologies (RSI, deafness and especially...