Cuts and lacerations on average resulted in six working days lost to job transfer or restrictions for the injured worker.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Hand Injury Statistics: Cost of Hand Injuries in the Workplace
Cuts and lacerations on average resulted in six working days lost to job transfer or restrictions for the injured worker.
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No one really realizes how useful fingers and hands are until you cannot use them. When I was in high school, I was using a band saw and accidentally cut through my finger. At first I had no idea I had done that because I didn’t feel it at all. I only realized what had happened when a waterfall of blood came pouring down onto the wood which I was cutting. Goes to show you that the shields on band saws are not useless but I digress. Getting my finger healed was a whole ordeal of its own because it was Christmas and I couldn’t get out of my house due to the snow storm. So like a dumb 17 year old, I washed away as much blood as possible and disinfected the wound, and then poured super glue into it. I really should have called 911, but in the moment it didn’t seem like a big enough emergency to warrant a phone call. For the next year, it was almost impossible for me to bend my finger all the way because of the amount of scar tissue and muscle damage in my finger. To this day, it is still painful to bend, but at least it functions. Having any kind of hand injury is the worst thing that could happen to people especially in our industry.
I wish this article had more information. As far as I am aware, when machining and using most saws gloves shouldn’t be worn due to the risk of injury from the glove being pulled off by the machine or the machinists hand being pulled in by the machine. Additionally, this article said 30% of hand injuries were due wearing the wrong kind of glove. Though I’m sure this information could be found somewhere else on the website, I wish this article explained what kind of glove to use for what kind of work and/or how to identify if there is a problem with a glove. Also, I don’t disagree that it is important to wear the correct gloves, but I’m a little skeptical of the statistics. I assume a large number of hand injuries occur when people are machining and using saws which, as I mentioned before, are situations where wearing gloves would be unsafe. The statistics also seem to be saying that 100% of hand injuries were due to not wearing gloves or due to misuse of gloves, which implies that wearing the correct gloves properly would make an individual immune to hand injuries, which doesn’t seem particularly likely. I’d be curious the see statistics on what percent of hand injuries would’ve been preventable, or at least decreased, had the injured person been wearing gloves.
I think this applies mostly to other industries given the gloves statistics but a certain Shop Manager's partial thumb is pretty good demonstration that it happens to us to. There is more and more protection every year and the regulations and safety equipment get better and better. But injuries continue to happen. At this point I wonder if it happens more when people aren't paying attention or when people feel too comfortable with all the protection measures. I'm a big fan of the TableStop, if you can get rid of one the dangers great. But there is always that chance that because you think its so safe you do something stupid and the saw kicks back a piece of wood that goes flying into your face. I personally like the European method where you trust the user to cut straight and leave out the fence. Harder to get a clean cut but infinitely safer.
The article mentioned how the 30% of the injured workers did wear gloves, but experienced injuries because the gloves were inadequate, damaged or the wrong type of gloves. This is something that is very important but can be easily overlooked. Often times people just think that as long as they have some kind of gloves to cover their hands then they’re fine, but it’s actually not. Safety is one of those things that is easy to go unnoticed when nothing happens, but can have a really huge negative impact when some sort of accident does happen (and they usually happen faster than one can react). It is always better to be ready/overly-cautious rather than having to regret it later.
Just as Sophie said, many times people slap on a pair of gloves and think that's fine. But work gloves aren't going to stop a drill bit from going through your hand if you aren't careful. Gloves are a safety precaution, not a preventative. I feel like in the theater world there is a lackluster appreciation for safety (not here at CMU, but definitely some smaller theaters I have seen), people want to either do things quick and dirty or safe and drawn out. And because of the time restraints of most shows, some people I have worked with chose quick and dirty. If there are no regards for safety in the first place, how are gloves going to help someone?
These statistics are insane! I cannot believe so many people injure their hands annually. I also cannot believe how much a hand injury can cost, especially the cost of stitches being upwards of $2,000. These huge deficits in the work industry are so impactful and the crazy thing is that they are also all so avoidable. The article claims that 70 percent of workers with a hand injury received that injury from lack of protective gear, namely gloves, and the other 30 percent were wearing gloves but they were not suitable for the task at hand, pun intended. If proper safety gear were easily accessible to all workers, there would be a severe decreased in hand injuries, and companies wouldn’t suffer as much from lost labor and insurance costs, and individuals wouldn’t suffer nearly as much financially. Safety always ends up being the determining factor in these cases, and the only thing to be done is make it better and more accessible.
Going off Cassidy and Julian, I think it also important to note that gloves do not always help when you are running a fly and the speed really picks up. If it is going fast enough (which it never should in the first place, but still) and your gloves have been subject to a lot of wear, you can feel the burn on your hand. Hand protection can only help you if you want to help yourself. I think these statistics go along with that thought. Losing two full weeks because you put your hand through a screw someone hadn't completely taken out of a scrap board is truly a rough way to go. School theatre is tough in this regard, as frequently the tech teachers either have a load of scars or a death wish (my tech supervisor had both), and so the true safety values when it comes to hand tasks aren't covered as well as, say, eye washing. If I had a nickel for every time I had to watch a teacher show us how to use the eye wash station, I would be a very very poor man. But a poor man with many nickels.
So, I am very curious as to what the numbers would look like for the people who did not experience hand injuries during this data collection period. As unrealistic as it would be to gather appropriate information on the injured versus non-injured hands, I think this data set would offer a lot more insight on how to solve the hand injury dilemma. I also think the idea of ranking jobs per their risk factor for hand injuries might greatly aide the effort in reducing hand injuries. Nevertheless, it kind of baffles me that so many people were using hand protection that was so insufficient it led to a cut or laceration of some kind or other. Of the injuries included in the study, some 33,000 were caused from these insufficient hand protection problems. With the average cost per injury exceeding $6,000, this means that approximately $198 million was spent on injuries that had inadequate/improper glove usage. It seems to me that pictures could be placed near machinery or tools indicating the proper glove attire and use at a cost much less than $198 million.
As a hand laceration injury veteran, I am very curious as to what “recommended glove procedures” for general wood shop carpentry work are. For almost anything that we do in our shop that is using mechanical tooling, the recommended procedure is to not wear gloves, as if an injury occurs, it will only make the injury worse probably. And within the campus community at large, the most common injury of any kind is hand injuries due to matte knives being used in design studios late at night, what kind of safety recommendations could we put in place to prevent this? I in general have an issue with the tone of this article, it makes it sound like the cause of hand injuries is improper glove-age, not improper use of tools. Gloves are deterrents to sharp, hot or chemical processes, but not to shearing or crushing ones. I would like to see the statistics about how the hand injuries were sustained before jumping on the glove bandwagon.
The prices for the repair of lacerations are astounding. I can't believe that it would cost something like $70,000 to repair a hand to normal functioning condition -- if even that, because a severed tendon usually means there will be some numbness or lack of movement in a particular area. Our hands are our most valuable tool to creating the beautiful and inspiring pieces we put on stage. In fact, to work any job, whether it's writing down a formula, typing in a computer, or hammering a set together, hands are an intrinsic and incredibly important part of any team. And it's scary to think that most of the people who have had hand injuries are using the proper protection given to them by their employers but still not being protected as they should be. That's a real laziness on the employer's part. Wouldn't it just be smarter for them to pay a little bit more money for more protection, rather than have to chip in how many thousand dollars for one or more of their employees to repair their entire hand?
Though some might be surprised at the cost to repair some of these hand injuries, I was expecting the cost to be somewhat higher. From my past experiences with clinical medicine, I know repairing a hand is often a lengthy and involved process. The intricacy of the tendons and the system of nerves that allow our hands to move so precisely make perfect repairs nigh impossible. Though new technology makes repairs better, the expense required for the research and manufacture of these technologies necessarily increases.
Hand injuries are devastating for anyone. Our hands are required for the majority of our day-to-day function, and even the most simple tasks. For someone who specializes in a hand-based craft, a hand injury might be akin to a loss of part of a person's identity. Due to the extreme expense of repairs, and the difficulty of the repairs themselves, investing in prevention and better preventative safety measure is crucial.
Hand injuries are very serious and people often take them for granted. If your hand was injured it will make it very difficult to do certain tasks or impossible to do them. In theatre we use our hands a lot to do things. The technical side of theatre needs their hands to set up and run equipment. Actors need their hands to do anything in a performance. It would also be very distracting if an actor had a cast on their hand or arm if their character was not supposed to be injured. As a stage manager I need my hands to write down blocking notes and typing up paperwork on my laptop. Right now I need my hands to do art projects for design classes. People do not often think about what their life would be like if they had an injury or disability. People often take their abilities for granted, while others are not as fortunate. I broke my right thumb when I was in fourth grade and I realized how much I actually used my hand and I had to learn how to do things with my left hand more and it was very difficult.
Hand safety and health is something that I try to remember every day. I spend more hours working with my hands a day than I do sleeping. If I lost the ability to feel and use use the full range of motion in my hands when making clothing, I’m not sure how well I would do. I have had my fair share of lacerations and cuts, but feel lucky that I have never had any really serious injuries. 2 years ago, I worked for a company who almost had the hand doctor at the local hospital on speed dial. The week before I cut my finger open, someone shot someone else though the hand with a nematic stapler. I cut my finger because I wasn’t given the proper tools to do the job I was asked to do, this other poor kid almost got his hand ruined because of some moron. Moral of the story that summer, be nice to your hands, life will come to a sudden halt in our industry with out the use of one of them.
Moral of the story is WEAR GLOVES. The way I look at it is if gloves are necessary for the job, it should be the company’s responsibility to provide workers with the right equipment to be safe, regardless of whether they are on salary or hourly. Now, on the flip side, it is not the company’s responsibility to make sure workers wear the gloves. I completely agree with the author, but sometimes forcing compliance through statistics won’t prove to be successful with individuals. People need to be motivated in different ways. But it is a huge liability for company’s when employees are literally rolling off the line. I am a student at CMU and I spend a lot of time using tools that are very dangerous, but we take every precaution for safety. CMU even has a speaker come in on the first day to go over equipment safety and to be sure that we are using it correctly. Getting hurt at CMU is not an option.
As students of theatre and soon to be theatre professionals, our hands are essential to our craft. No matter what concentration within the theatre, working hands is a part of everything we do. Whether it is building scenery or stitching a costume, our hands have to be able to do intricate and complex things. A hand injury can bring all of that to a halt. It really surprised me how expensive it is to repair a tendon. As something that is so crucial to our line of work, we couldn’t really afford not to pay the fee for getting a tendon injury fixed. It is a bit scary by the figure that some of the reported injuries were wearing gloves a the time of the injury. Taking prevention measures should actually prevent an injury.
Having stapled through my finger before with a pneumatic staple gun I am fully able to appreciate this article. However, how could a glove have prevented my finger from being stapled?
In the shop, or when working on a design, or even in lifting certain things there is sometimes no place for a glove or hand protection. Scene design elements in scale are much to small to have a glove between the piece of board I am cutting, and me. Screws become difficult to use when there is extra fabric in the way, and sometimes gloves just do not give enough traction. I think a better way of looking at hand injuries is people being more careful. Yes, I understand that accident's and injuries are not intentional. If they were they would be called "on-purposes", however, if people took the time, and slowed down I feel injuries would decrease, and successful work days would increase. Not to mention the inevitable rise is in quality of craftsmanship.
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