The Mechanisms

Hand and finger injuries are the largest single injury category in most industrial and construction workplaces, typically accounting for a quarter or more of all recorded injuries. They are also among the most preventable.

The mechanisms

• Caught between — the hand placed between two objects that then come together. Loads being landed, doors and hatches closing, equipment being positioned, components being mated.
• Struck by — a tool slipping, a hammer missing, a falling object, a spring-loaded part releasing.
• Contact with sharp edges — sheet metal, strapping, swarf, broken glass, blades, and the edges of the product itself.
• Caught in — drawn into rotating machinery, usually by a glove, a ring or clothing.
• Chemical and thermal — burns, frostbite, dermatitis, absorption through skin.
• Repetitive and forceful — cumulative tendon and nerve damage from grip, vibration and repetition.

The pattern

The overwhelming majority of acute hand injuries involve a hand placed in the path of movement or energy. This is why the single most effective control is positional: keep hands out of the line of travel, and use something other than a hand to do what a hand is currently doing.

"I just put my hand there for a second" precedes a very large proportion of hand injury reports.