A range of work environments can pose hazards to employees’ hands, including everything from offices to manufacturing facilities. Preventing hand injuries in the workplace requires an in-depth understanding of the hazards present in your work environment and comprehensive protocols to prevent this workplace injury.
Common Hand Injuries in Workplaces
Understanding the hand injuries that could occur in your workplace can help you implement measures to prevent them. Below are some of the most common types of hand injuries that happen in work environments.
- Lacerations from sharp objects or tools
- Crush injuries from placing one’s hands between two objects
- Fractures from falls or other sudden blows to the bones in the hand or fingers
- Fingernail injuries from the fingers being compressed between two objects
- Rings, gloves, or sleeves becoming caught in machinery and limiting the worker’s movements
- Burns from hot surfaces or chemicals
- Rashes or other skin concerns from contact with chemicals
- Carpal tunnel syndrome, which can occur when a worker engages in repetitive hand or wrist motions, such as typing on a keyboard or using certain tools
Hand injuries can happen due to carelessness, disregard for safety procedures, lack of safety equipment, and distractions.
Tips for Preventing Workplace Hand Injuries
As a business owner or manager, you have a responsibility to help workers prevent serious injuries. Taking steps to reduce the risk of injuries can also save your business a significant amount of money and prevent downtime.
The following tips can help you implement safe work protocols and prevent hand injuries in the workplace.
- Offer appropriate safety gloves for each task: PPE gloves can help protect workers’ hands during dangerous tasks. Choosing gloves that are heat-resistant, cut-resistant, chemical-resistant, or boast other qualities can help protect workers against specific hand hazards in your workplace
- Teach proper tool use to remove hands from dangerous positions: Workers should never need to put their hands in positions where they could be crushed, burned, or scraped by equipment. Using tools correctly can keep hands out of the line of fire.
- Understand proper ergonomics for desk use: Workers at risk of carpal tunnel from typing for extended periods should understand proper ergonomics for sitting at a desk. The elbows should be positioned at 90 degrees, with the keyboard and mouse positioned close to the body to prevent reaching.
- Prevent employees from wearing rings or jewelry when using equipment: For employees who need to use hazardous equipment in their line of work, wearing rings, bracelets, or similar jewelry should be prohibited. These materials can easily become caught in machinery and lead to serious injuries.
- Identify hand pinch points: Hand pinch points are dangerous areas where the fingers or hands can become caught between machinery or objects. Identify these points in your workplace and warn workers about them. They might include closing doors, gears, rollers, assembly lines, etc.
- Use protective machine guards: Placing protective machine guards around hand pinch points and other hazardous locations can prevent a person’s hands from becoming trapped or injured in these areas.
- Teach and reinforce proper equipment use: Using equipment correctly should almost never result in hand injuries. Educate employees on the safest ways to use equipment and reinforce these protocols regularly through continual monitoring and regular audits.
- Minimize distractions so that workers stay focused and alert: Hand injuries in the workplace often happen during a moment of inattention. Minimizing distractions can help your workers stay focused. This may include preventing them from wearing headphones while working with heavy machinery or implementing policies to prevent distracting conversations.
- Prevent employees from feeling rushed: Give employees plenty of time to complete tasks involving dangerous tools or machinery. Sometimes, injuries occur when employees have to rush through these tasks to meet deadlines.
When workers do experience hand injuries, they should seek medical attention promptly and report the injury to you or another supervisor.
WorkSafe Helps Workplaces Prevent and Manage Injuries
Maintaining a safe workplace helps you improve employee morale, maintain employee productivity, and prevent serious harm to workers you care about. Preventing hand injuries in the workplace is just one way you can improve your work environment’s safety and minimize the risk of harm.
WorkSafe helps businesses like yours prevent and manage injuries to save time and money. We can help you hire employees who are physically capable of performing their jobs, identify common causes of workplace injuries, and help employees return to work faster and stronger after injuries.
Contact WorkSafe today at 316-262-8800 to request a no-obligation call with our team.