Hand tool injuries at work: A surveillance perspective

This paper reports results of a surveillance study of work injuries caused by power and nonpower hand tools. Analyzing 129,399 case reports of hand tool injury compensation claims from the 1983 Supplementary Data System of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the authors determined that nonpower hand tool injury rates were highest in agriculture, followed by construction, mining, and retail trades. For power hand tool injury rates, the order was: construction, agriculture, manufacturing, and mining. Among nonpower hand tools, hand knives were prominent, causing large proportions of injuries to workers in the food preparation occupations and farm laborers. Power hand tool injuries were most often associated with saws, which accounted for large proportions of injuries to lumbermen, carpenters, and miscellaneous laborers. Most injuries could be described as acute trauma involving upper extremities, but musculoskeletal injuries were also documented in substantial numbers. The authors provide suggestions for focused investigations to follow the surveillance effort reported here.     

Anthropometric hand dimensions in a population of Iranian male workers in 2012

Background. The mismatch between the hand size of workers and the size of industrial instruments is a growing concern; it can lead to various musculoskeletal complications. Currently, there are few reliable studies available to address this concern in Iran. This study was conducted to measure 30 upper-extremity parameters in a group of Iranian industrial workers. Methods. This study is a cross-sectional study on 529 workers. The study population was randomly selected from male Iranian industrial workers who were referred to the Yazd hospital occupational medicine clinic for surveillance evaluations. Results. The M (SD) age of the participants was 30.13 (8.29) years. Statistical analysis was performed using the mean, standard deviation and 5th, 50th and 90th percentiles for each measured hand dimension. A considerable number of dimensions were significantly different between the measurements of right and left hands in each examinee. The results showed significant differences between Iranian hand size and that of other populations. Conclusion. This study provided a valuable databank of hand dimensions in a population of Iranian male workers. These data can be used by manufacturers in designing high-quality hand-tools and industrial gloves, taking into consideration Iranian worker characteristics.     

Epidemiology of occupational acute traumatic hand injuries: a literature review

The purpose of this review was to summarize the literature on occupational, acute, traumatic hand injury and suggest directions for future research. In 1996, the leading occupational injury treated in United States' hospital emergency departments was an acute hand injury (e.g. laceration, crush or fracture). These injuries affected 30% of an estimated 3.3 million injured workers (990,000). Cuts and lacerations of the fingers ranked third after back and leg strains in the number of lost workday cases in the USA in 1994. The incidence rate of hand injuries studied in seven manufacturing environments around the world ranged from 4 to 11 per 100 workers per year. Workers aged 24 years or less had the highest risk of hand injury. Men had higher rates of severe hand injury than women.Despite the high frequency and significant amount of lost work time associated with these injuries, they are poorly understood from an etiological perspective. There is only one case-control study of occupational hand injury in the literature. That study suggested an important role for both fixed (age) and transient risk factors (doing an unusual task) at the time of the injury. More analytic epidemiological research is needed to identify potentially modifiable risk or protective factors (e.g. glove use) for acute hand injuries. In this regard, the case-crossover design, a relatively new epidemiological approach using cases as their own controls, could prove an efficient method for determining transient, modifiable risk factors for acute, occupational hand injury.     

Turning at intersections and pedestrian injuries

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if precrash vehicle movement is associated with the severity of pedestrian injury. METHODS: We used comprehensive information on pedestrian, vehicle, and injury-related characteristics gathered in the Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS), conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) (1994-1998). The odds ratio of severe injuries (injury severity score >/= 15) and crash fatality rate for right- and left-turn collisions at intersection compared with straight vehicle movement were compared using a logistic regression model and taking into consideration the type of vehicle and age of the pedestrians as potential effect modifiers. Later we evaluated the intermediate effect of impact speed on the association by adding it to the logistic regression model. RESULTS: Of 255 collisions eligible for this analysis, the proportion of pedestrian hit during straight movement, right turns, and left turns were 48%, 32%, and 10%, respectively. Sixty percent of the pedestrians in left-turn crashes and 67% of them in right-turn collisions were hit from their left side. For straight movements the pedestrians were equally likely to be struck beginning from the left or right side of the street.After adjustment for pedestrian's age, vehicle movement was a significant predictor of severe injuries (p < 0.0001) and case fatality (p = 0.003). The association between vehicle precrash movement and severe injuries (p = 0.551) and case fatality (p = 0.912) vanished after adjusting for impact speed. This indicated that the observed association was probably the result of the difference in impact speed and not the precrash movement of the vehicle. CONCLUSION: Pedestrian safety interventions that aim at environmental modifications, such as crosswalk repositioning, might be the most efficient means in reducing right- or left-turn collisions at intersection, while pedestrians' behavioral modifications should be the priority for alleviating the magnitude of the collisions that happen in vehicles' straight movements.     

Fall from equipment injuries in U.S. mining: Identification of specific research areas for future investigation

Introduction

The objective of this study was to evaluate the circumstances leading to fall from equipment injuries in the mining industry.

Method

The 2006 and 2007 Mine Safety and Health Administration annual injury databases were utilized for this study whereby the injury narrative, nature of injury, body part injured, mine type, age at injury, and days lost were evaluated for each injury.

Results

The majority of injuries occurred at surface mining facilities (∼ 60%) with fractures and sprains/strains being the most common injuries occurring to the major joints of the body. Nearly 50% of injuries occurred during ingress/egress, predominately during egress, and approximately 25% of injuries occurred during maintenance tasks. The majority of injuries occurred in relation to large trucks, wheel loaders, dozers, and conveyors/belts. The severity of injury was independent of age and the median days lost was seven days; however, there was a large range in severity.

Impact on industry

From the data obtained in this study, several different research areas have been identified for future work, which include balance and stability control when descending ladders and equipment design for maintenance tasks.     

Differences in Eye and Hand Movements of Novice and Experienced Press Operators

Presses are very widely used in industrial and commercial companies and are often the source of serious accidents occurring during operation. Most of the accidents are due to inadequate training of novice operators. Continuous recordings of eye and hand movements of five novice operators and five experienced operators in press operation were made. Significant difference between novice and experienced operators was observed in eye fixation time, eye movement patterns, hand dwell time, and eye-hand coordination. Also, differences were observed in spatial distribution of eye fixations during the die-closing portion of a stroke. There were no significant differences between novice and experienced operators in the eye and the hand movement time. The results could be used as basic data to establish a guide determining the method and training period to train novice operators.     

Hand anthropometric study in northern Colombia

The main purpose of this study is to gather information about the dimensions of the northern Colombian (Caribbean region) population, focusing on the dimensions of the hand and comparing them with measurements from other regions. Thirty-two hand dimensions were chosen and 120 males and 86 females were measured. Results indicated that there were differences between the dimensions of the hand for men and women, showing that men are larger. Also, there was a comparison made between some measurements of other studies in different regions of Colombia, the USA, Chile, Jordan, Korea and Japan. The results indicated important physiological differences between regions in Colombia and across countries. It was therefore concluded that differences in anthropometric measurements must be included in the design and procurement of machinery and apparatus in order to avoid productivity loss, occupational injuries or illness.     

电视机和有线通讯设备流水线作业工人慢性肌肉骨骼损伤调查研究

电视机和有线通讯设备的生产，均采用流水线作业方式，３９０名生产工人的主要慢性肌肉骨骼损伤有手疲劳、右臂疲劳及肩痛，与对照人群比较，Ｐ〈０．０５差异显著。手痛、腕痛、颈痛及上下背痛虽多于对照人群，但无统计学意义，这与Ｌａｏｐａｊａｒｒｉ和ｓｈｉｈａｎ 等报告不同，这可能与当时工厂定额相对较低，全天纯劳动工时相对短有关     

Changes in logging injury rates associated with use of feller-bunchers in West Virginia

Problem: It is well documented that logging is one of the most dangerous occupations and industries in which to work, and trees fellers are at greatest risk of injury. The objective of this study was to determine whether West Virginia (WV) logging companies experienced a reduction in injuries after beginning to use feller-bunchers (tree cutting machines, which replace some of the work done with a chainsaw) during harvesting operations. Methods: WV workers compensation claims and employment data from 1995 to 2000 were used to calculate injury rates. Injury trends in the rest of the WV logging industry, not using feller-bunchers, were also assessed. Results: For 11 companies, the pre-feller-buncher injury claims rate was 19.4 per 100 workers and the post-feller-buncher rate was 5.2 per 100 workers. This was a significant difference, with an adjusted rate ratio of 2.8 (95% CI: 1.8–4.5) of pre to post claims. Struck by injuries also showed significant decline, with the pre-feller-buncher injury rate being 3.8 (95% CI: 1.8–8.2) times as great as post-feller-buncher rate. During the time of the study, the injury rate rose in the rest of the WV logging industry. The average cost of a workers compensation claim in the WV logging industry during the time of the study was approximately $10,400. Impact on industry: As mechanization of logging tasks becomes more widespread, the WV logging industry as a whole may see substantial injury declines and a reduction in the total cost of injury claims. Struck by injuries, the most common and potentially fatal of logging injury types, appear to be particularly affected. However, logging operations in areas of very steep terrain where it is not possible to use these machines may need to rely on strategies other than feller-bunchers to reduce injuries.     

The effects of hand force variation on shoulder muscle activation during submaximal exertions

Upper limb injuries are highly prevalent in the workplace and new tools are needed to proactively design workstations to reduce injury risk. The objective was to characterize spatial, load and direction dependency of muscle activity for hand exertions in the upper limb workspace. Electromyographic signals were collected from 14 upper limb muscles during exertions for all combinations of 4 submaximal hand forces (20/30/50/60?N) in 6 cardinal (up/down/left/right/forward/backward) directions at 5 hand locations. Linear muscle activity increases accompanied increased hand forces. Total muscle activity increases between 20 and 60?N hand forces ranged by direction from 92% (downward) to 189% (right). Prediction equations for all muscles depended on hand force, and linear, quadratic and interaction permutations of hand location. Muscle activity associated with manual tasks is load, direction and spatially dependent. Equations developed to describe these complex relationships can be used to better design future and evaluate current occupational activities.     

Attributes of occupational injury among workers in the chemical industry and safety issues.

Case-study research was carried out with a view to find the attributes of occupational injury among workers in the chemical industry and to enhance safety issues. Injury data were collected and processed in terms of different variables, such as age, gender, skills, type of hazard, etc. Pareto analysis was then applied to find a pattern of occupational injury among the workers. The study revealed that 79.52% of the injured workers were in the 40-59 age group; 57.14% of accidents occurred during the 1st shift; 73.26% of accidents caused injury to hands, feet, chest to thigh, arms and eyes; and 70.93% of injuries were caused by pumps, carrying and lifting, vehicles, pipelines, valves, and grinding. Surprisingly, no one was injured in the group of temporary workers. The paper also provides specific suggestions followed by some action plans.     

Attributes of Occupational Injury Among Workers in the Chemical Industry and Safety Issues

Case-study research was carried out with a view to find the attributes of occupational injury among workers in the chemical industry and to enhance safety issues. Injury data were collected and processed in terms of different variables, such as age, gender, skills, type of hazard, etc. Pareto analysis was then applied to find a pattern of occupational injury among the workers. The study revealed that 79.52% of the injured workers were in the 40–59 age group; 57.14% of accidents occurred during the 1st shift; 73.26% of accidents caused injury to hands, feet, chest to thigh, arms and eyes; and 70.93% of injuries were caused by pumps, carrying and lifting, vehicles, pipelines, valves, and grinding. Surprisingly, no one was injured in the group of temporary workers. The paper also provides specific suggestions followed by some action plans.     

A preliminary analysis of aortic injuries in lateral impacts

Injuries to the aorta are among the more serious injuries that result from vehicle impacts, and often may be fatal. This article examines the incidence of aortic injuries in the United States and United Kingdom by using two international databases of real-world crashes. The main outcome of interest was the level of risk associated with each principal direction of force for drivers and front-seat passengers with respect to sustaining aortic injuries. The results indicate that the risk of sustaining an injury to the aorta is greater for near-side crashes than for far-side crashes. Further it is apparent that, given a near-side crash, the risk of an aortic injury is greater on the left side of the body (and left side of the vehicle) than on the right. It also was found that the delta-V of crashes where occupants sustained an injury to the aorta was considerably higher than crashes where occupants did not sustain aortic injuries. It is speculated that the anatomical asymmetry of the thorax might play a role in the differences seen in injury risk associated with different impact directions. The results presented in this article could be of use to both the emergency physician treating patients involved in motor vehicle collisions as well as the engineer involved in occupant design countermeasures. Limitations and further planned research are discussed.     

Work environment risk factors for injuries in wood processing

Problem

The reported injury rate for wood product manufacturing in Maine, 1987-2004, was almost twice the state-wide average for all jobs. Method: A case-control study was conducted in wood processing plants to determine preventable risk factors for injury. A total of 157 cases with injuries reported to workers' compensation and 251 controls were interviewed. Results: In multivariable analyses, variables associated with injury risk were high physical workload, machine-paced work or inability to take a break, lack of training, absence of a lockout/tagout program, low seniority, and male gender. Different subsets of these variables were significant when acute incidents and overexertions were analyzed separately and when all injuries were stratified by industry sub-sector. Impact on industry: Generalizability may be limited somewhat by non-representative participation of workplaces and individuals. Nevertheless, these findings provide evidence that many workplace injuries occurring in wood processing could be prevented by application of ergonomics principles and improved work organization.     

Analysis of injury events with fuzzy cognitive maps

Issues related to health and safety at work, such as accidents at work, are one of the most important areas of action for global social policy. This paper presents a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) approach to explore the importance of the relevant factors in industrial plants. For this purpose, industrial plants are described in terms of factors that affect injury risk and the causal relationships involved.In this work, the injuries in an Italian refinery have been studied. The company in this account has a system for monitoring and controlling the machinery but has a large number of minor injuries at work. The causes of these injuries have been found in human behaviours. To analyse the injuries, it is necessary to investigate what individual-level concerns are involved in the perception of risk. For this investigation, an FCM permits us to build a schema of the perception of risk. The resulting analysis of all of these schemas has allowed us to define a method that generically permits a determination of the causes for each type of injury. In fact, it has been possible to determine that factors such as poor attention and concentration or fatigue are the main causes of injuries at work.In light of the results obtained, managers can define appropriate control procedures to diminish the occurrences of the injuries.     

The Relationships Between Biomechanical and Postural Stresses,Musculoskeletal Injury Rates,and Perceived Body Discomfort Experienced by Industrial Workers: A Field Study

A combination of archival, subjective, and observational field data collection methods were used to investigate the relationship between biomechanical and postural stresses, and the resulting physical strain experienced by industrial workers of a packaging plant. Assessment of physical strain was based on the number and incidence rate of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-reportable injuries that were recorded over a period of 27 months, and based on the self-reported ratings of perceived body discomfort. Both the biomechanical and postural stresses correlated with the musculoskeletal injury rate. The results illustrate the usefulness of postural and biomechanical analyses for assessing the risk of injury in industry.     

Impact of work boots and load carriage on the gait of oil rig workers

Effects of work boots and load carriage (6.4?kg and 12.8?kg) on gait pattern were investigated. The protective work boots were examined by comparison with running shoes through human performance tests with 15 male participants. The loads were carried symmetrically and asymmetrically on the shoulder and hand. Statistical data analysis showed a prolonged stance phase and decreased double support for work boots. A significantly increased ground reaction force was found in work boot conditions as the weight of loads increases. This study demonstrates that inflexible and heavy work boots restrict foot movement and require greater torque at the ankle to propel the body forward, which may increase physical strain and the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. Development of improved fixation methods for work boots, increased use of flexible protective layers and further study of anthropometry of human foot morphology for improved safety and work efficiency of industry workers are suggested.     

防护服对消防员工效性能影响的定量研究*

为开发高性能防护服以提升救援效率,基于人体试验,测量受试者穿戴灭火防护服、半封闭防化服、全封闭防化服以及基础服装（对照组）时静态条件下左右手握力值、疲劳度（RPE）和活动受限程度,通过方差分析、接受者操作特征（ROC）曲线图、相关性分析进行定量研究。研究结果表明:灭火防护服对消防员工效性能影响大于防化服,灭火防护服较对照组握力减小32%、RPE增大54%、活动受限程度增大35倍,且RPE和活动受限程度均与握力呈显著负相关（p<0.001）。研究结果可为消防员个体防护服装设计、测试、性能提升等提供理论支撑,也可为消防员生命安全保障研究提供基础数据。     

Comparison of mid-block and intersection-related left turn collisions

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the factors that might influence an occupant's injury severity during a left turn movement. METHODS: We used the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System (1995-2005) to compare crash characteristics and injury outcome between intersection and midblock left turn collisions. RESULTS: A total of 7,396 collisions were evaluated. Traffic control devices were present in 82% of intersection and 10% of mid-block collisions. After adjustment for potential confounding variables, drivers' injury severity was not significantly associated with the crash location. However, front seat passengers in mid-block collisions had 72% higher odds of experiencing an injury with injury severity score > or =9 (odds ratio: 1.72, 95% confidence interval: 1.09-2.69). Our analysis did not show that drivers or passengers in larger vehicles, e.g., sport utility vehicles and mini-vans, were at lower risk of more severe injuries in comparison to the car occupants in sedans. CONCLUSION: We found that in comparison to intersection-related left turn collisions, mid-block crashes are associated with more severe injuries for front seat passengers. Furthermore, size of the turning vehicle was not significantly associated with injury severity for drivers or front seat passengers.     

高技能人才工伤保护改进路径

高技能人才由于职业、岗位、才技与众不同,其工伤保护也存在一些特殊性。实践中,并未专门针对高技能人才制定特别的工伤保护措施。为此,笔者分析高技能人才工作时段和场所较易变动、劳动强度较大等特点,提出风险和事故的高发生率是科技活动内在的客观规律等,提出应给予失败者和事故责任者必要的宽容。建议政府应结合不同行业、不同岗位的技术含量和风险特点,从工伤认定、劳动能力鉴定、工伤保险待遇及浮动费率核算几方面改进现有工伤保护政策,且应加强高技能人才工伤预防和促进高技能人才职业康复。结合前文论述,笔者提出了相应政策和实用的对策。