Hand Safety
Our hands are one of the most important parts of our bodies, and yet it is one of the most commonly injured. From cuts and abrasions to burns and dislocations, our hands can take a lot of punishment. We must reinforce the importance of learning to protect our hands in the workplace and at home. Through hazard identification, elimination, and mitigation measures, we can ensure the continued functionality of our hands and prevent injuries from occurring, helping to improve our quality of life.
When focusing on any health and safety issue, we must always start with the hazard identification process. This will provide us with a way to evaluate situations or equipment that have the potential to cause harm, also known as a risk assessment, and identify the controls to use to eliminate or minimize the risk of injury.
The first step in protecting our hands following a hazard identification is to eliminate the hazards where possible. While this may be an obvious solution, it is the easiest and most effective way to control risk. Eliminating hazards can be something as simple as replacing or purchasing a new tool, or it can be as complex as engineering a barrier or guard on existing machinery. Whichever you choose, the end result should be preventing the worker from being exposed to the hazard.
For households, a common hand hazard are box cutters or utility knives. Many of these devices have very sharp blades and are used for a variety of jobs. They can come in different forms and are used and mis-used often. An engineering control to eliminate the hand hazard would be to purchase/replace the knife with one that has a self-retracting blade. This ensures that when you are not using the knife, the blade is safely stored in the handle, thus eliminating the hazard.
Updating your existing equipment is another great way to eliminate hazards. For example, replacing old hand tools with newer, lighter tools to make it easier to handle, or replacing power tools with newer ones that have more guards and protective features.
Training and education are the next steps and are crucial in the prevention of workplace and home injuries. Reading the user manual for new equipment, learning the controls of a power tool, and understanding the risks when you use it are some of the first things anyone should do before starting a job/task. Taking the 5 minutes to familiarize yourself with tools of the job can save you from potentially lifeline hand injuries.
The last and most common method to prevent hand injuries is personal protective equipment (PPE). While it is the least effective, as the risk is still present, it is widely used in the workplace and at home. However, there is no one solution, or PPE, to fit all tasks. For example, you wouldn’t use your oven mittens to handle chemicals, and you wouldn’t use dish gloves to pull hot trays out of the oven. We need to ensure that we select the right PPE for the job. As shown in the table below, there are different ratings for cut resistant gloves depending on the task/hazard. Chemical resistance should also be considered in your hand PPE. If you are handling strong chemicals, such as liquid chlorine, you need to choose a glove that is resistant to the chemical (such as using Butyl or Neoprene gloves over natural rubber gloves when handling chlorine). Understanding what hazards are expected from the job and how to best protect yourself with the right PPE can prevent injuries from occurring.
Along with selecting the correct PPE, everyone should also make sure to inspect your PPE for signs of wear and tear as this can identify a reduction in the protective features.
By taking the time to assess the risk, eliminate where possible, and control with PPE, we can help keep our hands safe and healthy.
If you are planning on doing any projects at home or at work, take a couple minutes to review the task and inspect your PPE. It may be time to change out those old gloves if they are cracked or have holes. That $10 to buy a new pair of gloves could prevent thousands of dollars in medical costs if you injure your hands. It is not worth the risk.
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