Think about construction safety. Jobs depend on it

How can glove clips help reduce hand injuries in the workplace?

The hand is one of the most complex parts of the body. It enables a person to execute simple or complex jobs that cannot be performed by any other part of the body. With injured hands even the most routine tasks can be made difficult to completely impossible. When talking about construction safety all jobs can be affected by hand injuries.

According to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hand injuries account for 1,080,000 emergency department visits by workers per year in the United States. More than 10,000 days-away-from-work are estimated from hand and finger lacerations. This injury figure is second only to back strain and sprain injury, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). These hand injuries alone account for over $380 million each year in medical expensese, downtime, lost man-hours and indemnity. With this lack of construction safety, jobs are put on hold and downtime affects employers and employees alike.

Of the 3.6 million work-related injuries treated annually in emergency rooms across the U.S., hands and fingers are the most commonly treated body parts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Reduction of hand injuries in the construction industry is everyone’s job. With all the hand protection products available in the marketplace designed to enhance safety, comfort and worker acceptance, the only missing ingredients are training and enforcement. Employers must provide the training for employees – especially for transient jobs they are not used to doing. The workers must be trained on the proper PPE and monitored to make sure they use the proper gloves for whatever task they are performing, but employers can not watch everyone all the time.

More than 90 percent of all acute injuries in the workplace are caused by human error, not equipment failure.

How can employees be better equipped to avoid hand injuries? A new addition to the PPE arsenal to address this issue is the glove clip. This tool is simply used to keep a worker's gloves with them at all times whether the gloves are being worn or not. One end is attached to a belt, a belt loop, coveralls or a harness. The other end is used to clamp tightly on to a pair of gloves not in use and not let go until they are needed again.

A year long study of workers in a chemical plant in Houston Texas showed that after adding glove clips to the company's PPE, hand injuries were reduced by 87% (link to glove clips report). These statistics stayed this low for each additional year the glove clips were used, and the glove clips are still being utilized today. In addition to saving money on the reduction of hand injuries using gove clips has another positive effect on the bottom line. Studies also show that using gloves clips reduces a company's glove replacement costs by anywhere from 60% to 80%. Even on the low end the glove replacement costs alone more than justify the return on investment.

The fact is simple about construction safety. Jobs in this industry are dangerous, and preparing workers to protect themselves from these dangers is paramount to a good safety program. Glove clips help workers keep their gloves near them at all times. If they have their gloves with them they are going to use them, and then everyone profits.

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