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Houston, Texas
CONTINENTAL
ALLOYS & SERVICES
Spring, Texas
Spokane, Washington
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
Congratulations to the Safety Stars Award winners for their safety
achievements! Go to the
Employee News
section of
RELIANCE
roots
to read about what the winning locations are doing!
HAND
SAFETY
IS UP TO
YOU
AND
SAFE
Hand injuries
– like the vast majority of workplace injuries – are preventable.
Still, within our Family of Companies hand injuries account for 40% of all injuries
that have occurred this year. Wearing gloves has been proven to reduce the
relative risk of injury by 60%. In the manufacturing environment, hand injuries
generally result from physical activity and result in bruises, abrasions, cuts,
punctures, fractures, and amputations to the hand.
Below are 5 easy steps to work to eliminate hand injuries:
1.
Training: Provide understandable training and reiterate the importance during Tool Box Talks.
2
. Evaluate and revise: Complete Job Safety Observations (JSOs) and Job Safety Analyses and make adjustments to
processes to protect employees’ hands and fingers.
3.
Provide Adequate PPE: Evaluate the PPE that is provided in your facility to ensure that it fits the need.
4.
Eliminate the Hazards: Use the tools available to keep your hands away from pinch points.
5.
Enforce Policies and Procedures: “Silence is consent”– do not allow employees to break safety rules by not
using proper PPE or taking short cuts.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
reports:
• 110,000 lost-time hand injuries annually
• Hand injuries send more than one million workers to
the emergency room each year
• 70% of workers who experienced hand injuries were
not wearing gloves
• The remaining 30% of injured workers did wear
gloves, but experienced injuries because the gloves
were inadequate, damaged or the wrong type for
the type of hazard present.
Additionally, the average hand injury claim now
exceeds $6,000, with each lost time workers’
compensation claim reaching nearly $7,500, according
to the BLS and National Safety Council. The cost of one
incident that could have been prevented by workers
wearing the right glove often far exceeds the cost
of an entire hand protection program. The National
Safety Council offers the following as a guide:
• Direct cost of a laceration: $10,000
• Stitches: $2,000 plus indirect costs
• Butterfly: $300
• Severed Tendon: > $70,000
Focus on reducing hand injuries will further our mission
to reduce injuries across the companies by 25% this year.