Hand injuries and prevention during work

What are the injuries to the hand?

Hand injuries can be classified as physical, chemical, mechanical, and biological. Among them, mechanical damage is the most common. The mechanical damage of the hand is divided into closed and open. The former can affect bones, joints, and tendons, sometimes affecting the nerves; the latter is more serious, can cause massive bleeding and affect other sites, and is also more complex in treatment. The degree of hand injury varies widely, depending on the injury factor and the process. The most common work is cuts and stab wounds. Mild cuts only injure skin tissue, while severe wounds can injure other tissues and even cause partial or complete amputations; stab wounds are more severe due to the presence of foreign bodies in the wound. The healing of open hand injuries is closely related to the degree of hand soiling at the time of injury. In general, damage in chemical plants, slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, and leatherworks can easily lead to infections and other complications.

Due to the widespread use of high-pressure spray and injection equipment in modern industry, accidents caused by jet injuries have increased significantly. Such conditions can be found in internal combustion engines, spray guns, grease injection guns, plastic injection molding machines, and certain auto repair equipment. If the jet does not strike the skin in a tangential direction, it will not cause skin cracking, and it will only be tingling at the beginning, and it will not be taken seriously until it feels serious when the ischemic pain increases.

Sometimes, even if the amount of the spray is small, it causes ischemia. However, after a few days, thermal or chemical stimuli may occur. Since the spray contains solvents, it may cause systemic symptoms of poisoning.

Hand burns can be caused by fire, red hot body, hot air flow, chemicals or electric shock. The degree of injury depends on the contact time, burn area and depth. Because such injuries occur frequently, they can sometimes be very serious. The harm caused by exposure to toxic, irritating or allergic chemicals is not traumatic, but the skin damage caused must not be ignored. It is one of the three major ways of occupational poisoning.

The measures to protect your hands are to fully consider and fully equip protection measures when designing and manufacturing equipment and tools. The second is to reasonably formulate and improve safety operation procedures and improve safety and security facilities. For example, protective covers are installed on dangerous parts of equipment, shielded from heat sources and radiation, and equipped with hand tools such as handles. If these measures can still not effectively avoid accidents, then you can consider the use of personal protective equipment, protective equipment can be roughly divided into gloves, fingertips, hand pads, sleeves, elbow pads and so on.

Almost no work does not have to hand. The hand is like an ingenious tool, with amazing power and flexibility, capable of gripping, rotating, pinching and manipulating. In fact, the connection between the hands and the brain is the key to human beings being able to perform various highly-skilled jobs. However, if you neglect the basic safety rules at home or at work, your hands will be very problematic.

Regardless of where you work or play, the three types of hand injuries include: traumatic injury after an accident, contact damage caused by exposure to toxic substances, and repetitive application of a group of muscles leading to repetitive activity problems.

Traumatic injuries include abrasions, split wounds (cuts), contusions, fractures and crush injuries. Traumatic injuries generally occur when careless application of machines and tools is performed. Contact injuries occur when your hands come in contact with harmful substances such as detergents or chemicals. Burns also contact damage. The problem of repetitive motions occurs in jobs that require repeated hands for long periods of time.

Identifying risk factors and formulating relevant safety measures to prevent them can reduce the chances of 500000 hand injuries each year. The opportunity to damage your hands should be minimized, and hand safety needs to work together. What we need to do is learn basic safety rules and follow them.

Occurrence of hand injury accidents is often caused by hidden accidents in the production work, and it is impossible to cause accidents without reason. Man-made unsafe behavior, unsafe status of items, adverse environmental impact, and lack of management all have potential security risks.

The occurrence of hand injury accidents may be caused by the lack of safety awareness of the responsible persons of the company, impractical work, inaccurate implementation, operator's failure to follow regulations, or management confusion. The corporate responsible person did not really implement the state’s various organizational measures and technical measures in labor protection, the existence of heavy production and safety, and the serious absence of corporate management, resulting in imperfect or deceptive safety management systems; even many companies’ The production workshop and assembly line did not establish sound operation regulations, rules, and complete safety protection measures. Or even if there are regulations and rules for safe operation, the management personnel only stayed on the verbal side, doing superficial articles, coping with inspections, and did not strengthen safety production. management. Many business equipments are old, machinery is aging, maintenance is not in place, working environment conditions are poor, safety inspections are in abject manner; safety education and training are not in place, go through the courts, engage in formalism, and employees are not familiar with safety procedures, rules and regulations, machinery and equipment. In the case of taking up jobs, the operation is only used by one's own knowledge or adventure operation. The employees are accustomed to this situation, they are paralyzed, they don't care, there is no danger consciousness, there is a psychological fluke, and there are no plans to save the effort. Follow-up, illegal operations, operational errors, and ultimately the occurrence of hand injuries.

Understanding risk factors

Although companies consider protecting your hands from risk factors, only you can prevent accidents caused by carelessness, such as incorrect use of equipment and materials, improper contact with corrosive substances, and excessive use of a certain group of muscles. Before you use your hand, think about risk factors. Here are some common hand injuries that you should avoid in your life.

Traumatic damage: There are potential risk factors everywhere - chains, wheels, rollers or gears, nails or serrated tools; edges of cutters; cuts, cuts, and pressures; tools and tubes to be energized, wires and plugs, and high-altitude fall objects.

How to prevent: Use protective tools correctly and operate safely. Stay alert, especially if two people are working on the same machine. Understand the performance of your machine. Keep the machine in top condition and make sure that the machine's power is turned off and stopped when servicing the machine.

Contact Injury: Organic solvents, acids, cleaning fluids, flammable liquids, and thousands of other substances can cause tissue damage or burns. Some stimulants can cause acute injuries; others can cause chronic damage through prolonged contact.

How to prevent: Know what kind of gloves you should wear at work; if you are not sure, ask someone else. Finding timely reports on hand protection issues at work. Understand the hazards of the substances you are exposed to; if it is suspicious, you should find out immediately. Keep each substance labelled and develop the habit of reading labels.

Repeated movement problems: Repeated use of hands for a long time, such as grasping or squeezing, may cause damage to the tendons or nervous system.

Prevent traumatic injury

The main causes of hand injuries that occur at home or at work are: carelessness. The best prevention is to stay alert to risk factors. Understand the machinery and materials you work in, and safety precautions. Make the machine well-maintained and make sure that the power is turned off and the machine stops before reaching into the machine. Be especially careful when working with others on a machine. Keeping your work area clean helps prevent various injuries. Remove rings, watches, and bracelets before starting work. If an accident occurs, seek medical advice as soon as possible to minimize complications.

Damage types and their prevention

Frictional injury: Scratches can be caused by saws, flywheels, grinding wheels, belts and rollers, or rough material scratches are only a loss of surface skin. Damaged skin makes it easier for harmful substances and bacteria to invade. Put protective gear in proper place. Bring suitable gloves when needed to ensure that the gloves will not be taken away by the machine;

Stab wounds: Stab wounds can be caused by nails, thorns, debris, hooks, staples, glass, and disciple or tooth tools. The stab wounds are sometimes shallow and sometimes deep enough to penetrate deep tissues. If the stabbing injury is not properly treated, it will become a potential infection site to keep the work area clean, use appropriate tools to do the right job, and use it properly. Use screwdrivers, drills, sharp drills, and knives carefully;

Cutting injury: Cutting injury usually occurs when you use a blunt instrument to cut hard, or when the two surfaces are in tangential contact, a mild cut only affects the skin. Deep cutting injury can affect nerves and tendons, completely impairing part of the hand function away from the blade, using sharp retractable blades. Use gloves to prevent cutting and scratching. Be alert for cutting accidents at work;

Contusion: When the hand falls on a fall, it can cause a contusion, or sudden excessive exertion. For example, in the contusion during weightlifting, keep the muscles and ligaments of the joint stable, and take care when pulling or tearing the stairs, especially when falling. When you have a heavy load. Timely report and repair damaged stairs, carpets or floor mats. Do not use a chair as a climbing tool;

Fractures: Fractures often occur in "hand traps" such as wheels, rollers, or gears that rotate inwards; or violent hand tapping may cause one or more bone fractures in a previous damage to a hard object. Tendons and ligaments are also generally lost, resulting in pain, swelling, congestion

Keep your hands away. Safe use of instruments with fast rollers. Use the press bar to operate the rotating and running machines

Press injuries: Crush injuries are generally caused by the sudden approach of two pieces of heavy machine hardware. It is also possible that explosive or compressive forces can cause the deep tissue of the hand to bruise as a result of falling weights and door jamming. Bones can also fracture to prevent falling objects or heavy objects that may cause hand injuries. Keep your hands away from moving parts.

Preventing contact damage

The two layers of your skin protect you from microorganisms and infections unless the barrier is damaged by irritants or burns. Keeping clean and careful is the best way to prevent contact damage. Maintain good hand hygiene and feel while having potentially harmful substances, electronic devices, or flammable objects at work. Do not rub hands with dirty, oily rags. Wash your hands with soap and warm water after work. Avoid using it until you are indicated to apply a chemical.

China Labor Insurance Network