What Are Some Frequent Workplace Injuries? Can You Avoid Those?
Millions of workers are experiencing workplace injuries every year. This has become a common plight in a fast-moving world where humans are expected to be punctual and precise. Such injuries are devastating but are also avoidable with appropriate treatment.
The most prevalent workplace accidents and the causes for their occurring were two sides of the same coin. The ideal way to deal with mishaps is to get work-related injury relief in Calgary. While there are examples of dangerous events inflicting injury that no one could have prevented. It is also true that there would be considerably fewer incidents of people getting badly harmed or injured without any of the dangers that often go unreported and ignored while at work.
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Let’s investigate the workplace injuries and see what safety measures we can use to assist you avoid them.
The six most frequent workplace injuries
1. Trips, Slips and Falls
Tumbles, slips, and falls make for approximately one-third of all personal workplace injuries and are the leading source of workers’ compensation claims. Head, back, and neck injuries are common, as are fractured bones, cuts, sprains, and strained muscles.
The most prevalent reasons for workplace falls are:
Slips: Occasional spillage, damp or greasy surfaces, and weather dangers such as ice steps or walkways.
Poor illumination, debris, wrinkled carpets or matting, exposed wires, and uneven floor surfaces contribute to trip hazards.
Here are three major areas to investigate that avoids such workplace injuries:
– Proper Housekeeping Practices
– Adequate Walking Surfaces for Quick Movements
– Ideal Footwear for Workers
Additionally, staff should be encouraged to report cluttered, obstructive, spilled, or damaged places.
2. Musculoskeletal Disorders:
MSDs account for 43% of workplace injuries. Rather than being the consequence of a workplace mishap, these sorts of injuries are frequently the result of repetitive motions without adequate rest, which places an additional load on the human body. MSDS often manifests as pain in the joints, muscles, and ligaments.
There are ways with which workers can prevent MSDs.
- Keeping a proper posture while working to avoid undue pressure on the body.
- Maintaining a healthy fitness program outside of work.
- Taking frequent pauses, especially while doing repetitive tasks.
3. Vehicle-Related Accidents
Wherever there are cars of any sort, the possibility of an accident exists. These include
-being hit or ran over by a moving vehicle
– leaping from a vehicle
– struck by falling items from a vehicle
– being crushed by or being trapped under an overturned vehicle.
Avoiding these kinds of mishaps starts with determining who is in danger and the locations and times of these incidents. Only then may preventative actions be implemented more readily. Concentrate on workplace design, ensuring that all layout paths constantly separate people and vehicles and identify obstacles. Additionally, directions, speed limits, and priority signs are beneficial.
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4. Being struck by an object
In 2018, 9.1 percent of occupational injury claims involved being struck by an object or piece of equipment.
The first things you might ask following this type of mishap are, IF –
- PPE was worn
- All machinery was in excellent operating order
- Good housekeeping was performed.
You might conduct a post-accident drug testing to evaluate whether the employee who was struck was at fault.
You investigate the role of other on-scene employees and those accountable for the apparatus or object involved in the crash.
When this fails to get to the heart of the situation, you must wonder if anyone on the scene was preoccupied and unaware of potential threats.
5. Injuries from machinery:
Machines are a common occurrence in industrial settings, and they provide a variety of potential hazards:
• Pressurized gas and liquid, often at very high temperatures, resulting in burns and injuries if released in a pressure leak.
• Moving components may result in cuts, scratches, and even severe accidents such as crushing and amputation.
• The machine itself may short, or improper handling may expose you to dangerous chemicals, fire, freezing, or electric shock.
Dealing with occupational hazards involves prevention in a combination of being well-informed and being circumspect. There are several safety measures, such as the following:
• Ensuring that you have received adequate instruction on operating the machine safely and refraining from operating any equipment on which you have not received training.
• Conducting a visual inspection of all safety features before each job.
• Maintaining the machinery to keep it in good shape, which includes sharpening saw blades.
• Keeping the equipment and the space surrounding it clean and clear of impediments or obstructions.
• Avoid wearing loose clothes that might become entangled in equipment; similarly, this should be fastened correctly if you have long hair.
6. Repetitive motions
Like overexertion, repeated actions cause physical weariness, which ages the body and increases the likelihood of damage. Additionally, repetitive motions are frequently tiresome, resulting in mental exhaustion and related cognitive impairment. Not only does an employee in this state increase their risk of harm, but they also increase the chance of injury to others around them.
When determining the source of repetitive motion injuries, workplace safety protocols, adherence to break intervals, and appropriate equipment use are frequently examined first.
To facilitate such studies, the fit-to-work evaluation you utilize should be capable of determining when a repeated motion becomes tiresome to the point of boredom and distraction. These factors might result in mental exhaustion and cognitive impairment, which can result in more mishaps. While some injuries may seem inevitable, our therapists offer work related injury treatment in Calgary to ease your pain.
Avoiding Injury at Work
Companies may still protect their employees from severe injury with the proper equipment. Factories can equip employees with personal safety gadgets that will enable their locations to be monitored and assistance sent to their locations in an emergency.
Additional safety precautions are required for lone workers to prevent situations in which employees are harmed or wounded and unable to summon assistance.
Numerous of these alarms also have a ‘Man Down’ system, which detects when a worker has fallen, whether from an accident, sudden sickness, or another event.
Employers can minimize the risk of workplace injury by doing a comprehensive risk assessment, mitigating hazards where possible, and providing employees with the appropriate tools and equipment. With these measures in place, the strain associated with workplace accidents may be substantially minimized.