What Are the Top Causes of Work Injuries by Type of Accident?

, ,
Top Causes of Work Injuries

The National Safety Council reports that there are 4.5 M workplace injuries recorded each year. This means a worker is injured – either permanently or temporarily – and his life endangered every 7 seconds. The most common injury causes are coming into contact with equipment and different objects, overexertion, sprains and strains, as well as trips, slips, and falls.

Of all the causes of work injuries, trips, slips, and falls, and strains combined for the biggest lost-time claims, based on statistics. Struck by incidents accounted for the next biggest total.

Following are the leading causes of work injuries according to accident type:

  • Slips, Trips, and Falls – In terms of severity and frequency, this accident category is tops. Although injuries sustained on same level (not at height) were number 1 in terms of frequency, falls from an elevated area contribute to more severe injuries. Most incidences of slips, trips, and falls resulted in injuries to the ankle, knee, or back. Hospitals, restaurants, non-profits, transportation, roofing, and carpentry were included in the industries that were most affected.
    You can prevent injuries from this type of accidents by requiring your workers to wear the right footwear, and walking carefully. Running through work environments is never a good idea. Ensure that the floor surfaces are clear and dry. Don’t allow items like cords or rugs to just lie around the area. Secure them.
    Encourage workers to focus on the walking path. Tell them to refrain from carrying things that may block their view. Getting rid of possible walkway hazards can help avoid injuries that these obstructions may cause.
  • Sprains and Strains – This accident type caused a significant number of injuries that led to lost-time claims. While this type of work accident may not be as severe as other accident categories, it is the most common. A majority of these injuries were sustained from pushing, pulling, and lifting. Over 50% of the injuries happened on the knees, back, and shoulders. These were most frequent in the restaurant industry, as well as the firefighting, residential construction, and healthcare (including home health and hospitals) industries.
    To help keep employees away from injuries in the workplace, integrating safe lifting practices and procedures in the workplace is important.
    Improper lifting and overexertion can inflict damage to discs, tendons, spines, and cartilage. Make sure that your employees get training on the proper way of lifting loads. Provide them with gloves and other necessary support equipment to help them move loads. Train your workers to cooperate with one another to complete bigger and heavier jobs.
  • Burns or Scalds – While injuries caused by burns or scalds were not as common as the previous types of accident, this category resulted to more severe injuries. Most affected body parts were the hands and lower arms. Burns or scalds were most common in auto shops and restaurants. This is due to the fact the workers were more exposed to fire and other hot objects or substances compared to other industries.
    When working with grease and other hot liquids, your workers should wear protective gear like gloves and aprons. In food service work environments, handles for hot pans and pots should be turned inwards to keep them from getting knocked over. Potholders must be available for lifting them.
  • Struck By – The most common incidences of this type of injury are often the result of being struck by flying or falling objects or being struck by a colleague or any other person. The severest injuries of this kind happened when people were hit by motor vehicles. Often, the driver didn’t notice them or the vehicle’s brake or other safety mechanisms did not engage properly.
    Train your workers on the proper use of the machinery. This will help lower the incidence of struck by accidents. Do not allow workers to use the machines improperly, a common example of which is standing on an elevated loading bucket. Workers must be discouraged from standing directly behind or in front of machines while in operation.

Injuries in the workplace can have a significant effect on both your business and workers. The good news is, a lot of common workplace injuries can be prevented by putting safety measures in place, as well as by teaching your employees the best practices in the industry.

/by

The Physics behind the Real Danger of Falling Tools

, , ,

Based on reports by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one person gets injured by a falling object in their workplace every ten minutes. That’s about 50 thousand reported cases every year.

These incidents are most common in workplaces where work at height is done. In work at height areas, the most common objects that fall and cause injuries are handheld tools and material debris.

The range of damage or injury can vary from a slight bump to a crack in the skull. The possible victim’s safety depends on the object’s mass, the height of the fall, and the acceleration due to gravity. These physical elements determine the impact force that can cause damage.

How? The following section will explain.

The Physics of Falling Objects

Although keeping a hard hat on at all times may keep you generally safe from a direct hit, not all falling objects have the same impact force. Thus, you can still incur concussions and contusions in spite of the hard hat. But how exactly can falling objects cause such damage from a certain height?

According to physics, when an object at rest suddenly falls, the force of gravity converts its potential energy to kinetic energy—energy in motion. Gravitational pull causes the object to accelerate and creates force. This force is what generates impact when the object hits or collides with something after falling.

To calculate an object’s impact force when it falls from a certain height, you first need to calculate how much kinetic energy the object had before the point of impact. You can do that using the following equation:

E = mgh

E stands for energy, m for object’s mass, g for acceleration due to gravity (constant is 9.81 m/s-2), and h for the falling height.

To incorporate this equation into solving the average impact force of the falling object, you need to take into account the distance traveled by the object.

The distance traveled does not automatically equate to the falling height. This is because the falling height is the distance of the point of fall from the ground, whereas distance traveled is the distance the object traveled when it hits the ground before stopping completely.

To get the average impact force (in Newtons), you’ll need this equation:

Average impact force = mgh / d

Or

Average impact force = E / d

E or mgh stands for the change in kinetic energy and d is for distance traveled by the falling object.

For this calculation, the height and distance should be in meters, and the weight should be in kilograms.

Now, for example, to calculate the impact force of a 3-kilogram wrench that falls from a 3-meter scaffold and embeds itself 5 cm deep into the ground, you’ll apply the formula as:

Average impact force = mgh / d

Average impact force = (3 kg * 9.81 m/s-2 * 3 m) / 0.05 m

Average impact force = 88.29 / 0.05 m

Average impact force = 1765.8 or 1766 Newtons

This result means that it takes a force of 1766 Newtons for a 3-kilogram wrench to penetrate the ground 5 cm deep after falling from a height of 3 meters. Without head protection, this amount of force is enough to knock someone unconscious and cause a skull fracture. In some studies, it has been proven that a force of 2300 Newtons is enough to crush a skull in one hit.

Preparing for and Preventing Damage from Falling Tools

Once you get how the formula works, you can calculate the impact force of any falling tool or object in your workplace. Knowing the physics behind falling objects can give you the following advantages:

It will provide you with an idea of how dangerous your tools can be when they’re dropped.

Knowing about the impact force of falling tools can help you plan for better safety measures in your workplace. This will help strengthen the workers’ awareness about the potential dangers of falling tools. It will also reinforce your company’s safety policies, particularly your tool tethering policy.

You can involve your workers in demonstrating how each tool can inflict injuries when dropped from heights. That way, they’ll know what can happen if they don’t tether or secure their tools when working at height. It’ll also prove to them that non-compliance should be treated as a grave offense.

It can help you estimate the extent of damage falling tools can cause.

When you know how much force your tools can have when they fall off a height, you’ll be better able to estimate how much damage they can cause. This can help you create mitigation plans for all the equipment and materials used in your work site.

By preparing for the possibilities of falling tools and objects in your workplace, you can better prevent injury and damage. You don’t need to master every physics principle, but having a clear idea of what impact force means can help you provide a safer workplace for everyone.

/by