A total of 1029 incidents have been notified to HazardCo so far this year – 276 of these were finger and hand related. Given the frequency, we want to look at the impact of these injuries and how to manage them better.
There are a fair few ways these occur on-site. The most common include:
The causes are often the result of equipment malfunctions, falling objects, compression between objects, electrical faults, and worker errors.
Hand tools are a huge contributor to hand related injuries in the workplace. When using these common tools, hammers, hand saws, pliers, angle grinders etc fatigue, rushing, complacency, using faulty or damaged tools or a lack of training often leads to workers injuring themselves
The long-term impact of a hand injury ranges from minor to severe. A minor injury could mean changes in grip strength and reduced range of motion of the fingers. In more serious cases, a worker may lose the ability to use their hand.
Awareness is everything. You can educate your staff in the following ways:
This is more than just talking to your workers, as a leader you need to give your workers real-life examples of incidents that have life-changing effects on workers: their health, finances, family and livelihood.
Once workers have the knowledge, it’s up to them to maintain hand safety awareness. Team leaders, however, need to ensure they monitor and review the workplace to ensure controls are in place / being used.
Leading the way in safe practices to reduce the number of hand injuries on site.
If you’ve got a question about hand injuries or any other health and safety matter, the HazardCo Advisory Team is here to help. Give them a call on 0800 555 339, option 4.
Meeting your health and safety requirements shouldn’t be a chore. Instead, it should be an easy, functional and productive part of your day. With HazardCo, that is exactly what it becomes.
For a 7 day no obligation trial of HazardCo, just fill in your information and take control of your on-site Health & Safety.