Want to get a handle on hand safety?
Use these two tips to reduce hand injuries
Tip #1: Ensure employees are always wearing the correct Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by doing a task specific risk assessment.
The reality is many employees don't wear PPE, or employees wear PPE but are using the wrong PPE, or using it incorrectly.
Tip #2: Choose the right gloves for the job
Of course, wearing gloves will help protect against hazard. But not just any kind of glove will do.
As another training exercise, have employees match the hazards they've identified with the right kind of glove and ask them to explain why certain types of gloves are or aren't appropriate for certain hazards.
For example, use rubber rather than cotton gloves for handling hazardous liquids because rubber repels liquids, while cotton absorbs them.
Remember to include training on safe ways to use hand tools, power tools, machinery and other typical causes of serious hand injuries.
This would be for hand injuries that you can't prevent by wearing gloves (lacerations, broken bones, amputations).
Important: The Health & Safety Advisor recommends you help your workers learn to recognise patterns that lead to hand injuries in their environments.
'By training workers to consciously see hazards, they can begin to identify patterns instinctively.'
Remember, accidents don't just happen. They happen when workers don't pay attention and don't think about what can go wrong before it does.
In addition to these two tips, make sure you read this article. It contains two more hand safety tips.
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