Porch: From hammers to hacksaws, the tools of home improvement can turn dangerous quickly if misused. For novices and experts alike, a lapse in focus or preparation can have painful consequences—leaving the homeowner hurt and the project half-finished. Still, the risks of home improvement haven't dimmed DIY enthusiasm, with millennials particularly eager to attempt their own upgrades. If you have your heart set on getting handy, you'll need to know which tools are most likely to cause injury and which common accidents to avoid.
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It's interesting that most of these "most dangerous tools" aren't even power tools. It makes sense, because as the use of a tool increases as does the risk of people misusing it and hurting themselves. It seems like not only are these the "most dangerous" but they are also organized in order of most popular. the likelihood of someone using a ladder is much higher than someone using something like a band saw, because many people use ladders for things like cleaning their gutters and putting up Christmas lights. Many of these people may not have a spotter, or adequate placement, and may hurt themselves. I also think that many people become more careful as their perceived danger increases. We all know that you could cut your hand off on a band saw, but many people think they won't fall off a ladder, so we are less careful with the tool and more likely to misuse it. This infographic really puts things into perspective about the way we look at the tools we use.
First, the infographics that they put in this article is very well designed and easy to read. That aside, this article is very interesting and draws important connections between types of injuries by tool, by body part, by day of the week, by age, and by gender. I’m not surprised that the largest cause of accidents is ladders. They are one of the most annoying things to set up, especially tall ladders, and are a pain to move around. It’s understandable that people would want to take shortcuts to try and save time, but this chart is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t. Interestingly, most injuries are from small tools and not large ones, indicating that people take the most care with larger tools and ignore the hazards of the smaller ones because they are, well, smaller. When you let your guard down, you’re most likely to slip up, which makes sense why the smallest tools cause the most injuries.
I was honestly surprised by ladders being at the top of this list. Not so much because they don’t strike me as dangerous – I actually have a bit of a heights thing and am not very fond of ladders – but more-so because I had never really thought of a ladder as a “tool” before. I suppose they are, but I considered them more “equipment.” But what’s the difference when you really get into it? The rest of the list made a lot of sense in terms of how often an object is used in relation to the number of injuries that resulted from its use.
A funny story about “imperiled appendages,” I like to joke that losing a finger runs in my family because my uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather on my mom’s side have each lost all or part of a finger in some sort of carpentry/work related accident. Now knowing that fingers are already in the most danger on average, I don’t feel too great about my odds here. On a more serious note, I feel like my awareness of the risk makes me more careful in the shop, and I think that this article serves as a good warning and guide for people to take the tools and equipment that they are working with seriously and to work carefully.
I really enjoyed the graphics that were used in this article, since the were clean and very nice to read. I also thought it was interesting how they had injury charts for things like the different days of the week, gender, and location on the body. Whenever I see things about what tools are dangerous and what people most often get hurt on, I’m never surprised by the fact that it’s almost always the common appliances that everyone has, or that everyone’s used. It’s when we get too comfortable to be cautious around the tools and equipment that we’re more prone to accidents. I remember that one year, despite working with all of the powertools and things in my school shop, the only thing I ever got hurt on was a pair of scissors at home.
After all of the dumb ways I’ve seen people use ladders, I’m not surprised at all that it was so high on the danger list. I bet everyone I know, including me, has done something stupid on a ladder. I guess it’s just best to keep some air of caution around anything you’re using.
I clicked on this article because I’m currently in a scene shop class in which we use various different tools and machines that, if used without caution, can be very dangerous or even fatal. To my surprise, the tools/machines that I thought were most dangerous differed entirely with the actual statistics of the matter. The article states that, for example, instead of a chain saw or any sort of saw machinery being involved with the killing a person, a ladder is the number one involved “tool” when killing someone. At first glance these objects can seem very innocent and harmless, but it turns out that the most dangerous tools are the ones most frequently used and least expected to hold such damage. The article also backed up that claim with another fact where they said that cleaning agents have resulted in over 45,000 more ER visits that a hammer or chainsaw. The things we would least expect would harm us are the ones that are one of “America's most dangerous tools”.
I feel a little guilty about laughing my butt off reading this article; many of the injuries are certainly no joke, and in all honesty, falling off of a ladder seems like a likely cause of my death. That said, some of these injuries are just ridiculous and funny. A middle aged man cutting a wine crate with a band saw, a 31 year old man pouring gasoline on a brush fire (seriously?), and my personal favorite: the 61 year old man that reports a cough and trouble breathing after mixing bleach and ammonium…. “Hey doc, I’ve had a little trouble with this cough ever since I decided to make chlorine gas in my kitchen, not the foggiest why.” I guess this is mostly just a cautionary tale about taking short cuts and understanding the tools and materials you’re working with, but the extent that people clearly do not understand those things borders on comical.
I find this line up unsurprising since ladders are very commonly used and people don’t see them as particularly intimidating. Not very many people use chainsaws, and those who do are probably (hopefully?) very conscious of the safety risks involved. Chainsaws looks dangerous, and so people are cautious around them. Ladders are seen as mundane, and so people become overly casual when using them. I would be curious to see tool injuries per capita, for lack of a better way of putting it. I find it weird that they included people who don’t use tools in the odds of injury. If the 1 in 1,680 chance of falling from a ladder includes people who never use ladders, those aren’t actually anyone’s odds of falling off a ladder. The people who don’t use ladders have no chance of falling off a ladder, and people who do use ladders have a much higher chance that 1 in 1,680. I’d be curious to see the odds of injury from a given tool as compared to the number of people who use that tool at least once a year or so. There are so many ladder injuries because so many people use ladders, but I wonder if they are really more dangerous than some of these other tools or just more common.
Like many others have said about this list some of these tools really surprised me in terms of their placement on this list and the locations in which the injuries occurred was really interesting. As Emily said above the infographics really help tell the story of this article and the intensive research that they went through for this information, there so good they should almost be posted in some basic level shops just to remind people of what they are doing before they do it. The one thing that I do wish this article would go into more detail however or explore as a further experiment is the range of uses going on while these injuries occurred I’d like to know exactly how many injuries occurred when the tool was being used properly vs. when it wasn’t just to get a feel of what was more user error vs. the tool.
Unlike many other commenters, I was not very surprised by the information in this article. The idea that Al brought up in his comment is exactly what I was thinking while reading this article. In general, tools don't kill...complacency kills. Tools like large saws and heavy equipment don't hurt as many people because these tools are so blatantly dangerous that people treat them with the caution and the respect they deserve. That being said, tools like ladders and hardware like fasteners are never thought of as dangerous to the average person. This gives most people a false sense of security while using them causing them to be less cautious and less careful, thus leading to job site injuries. Unfortunately, I have seen first hand what a bad fall on a job site can do to someone. A fall from height from a ladder or a roof for that matter can cause life-changing injuries and even death. Ladders are not something to play around with.
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