In a lot of ways it’s not surprising that it is our hands and fingers that get hurt the most often when we are at work.  After all it is with our hands that we do our physical tasks with.  Given how important our hands are to the quality of our lives, I’m surprised that not everyone takes as good of care of them as you think they would.  Too often we review safety incidents in which people just weren’t thinking about the potential consequences of a hand injury and as a result they are now a statistic.  We find that there are poor choices being made about what gloves to wear, or people putting their hands in places that they cannot see, or are of higher-risk.  I even see people not wearing gloves, or the wrong one for the task when I’m out in the field walking around.  There is still a lot that we can do to eliminate hand injuries from occurring, and I would love for that to be true.  I also know that this work will never be complete, but that we need make sure that this is a continual topic in our daily rounds, toolbox talks, and FLHAs.  Together, I know we can eliminate these types of injuries.

Here are some tips for you to consider and to think about:

• Take off all finger rings before you start work for the day; remind others to do the same thing.
• Don’t put your hands into a place that you cannot see.  This can prevent an injury from an unseen hazard.  If for some reason you do need to do this, take extreme care.
• Never try and catch falling tools, materials, or equipment.  These can be replaced, your hands and fingers cannot.  Remember, even small objects, and objects with significant momentum can cause serious hand damage.  Never be the “soft” item between two immovable objects!
• Wear the right glove for the job that you are doing.  Wearing an impact and cut resistant glove as your standard glove (and adjusting to the task from there) has been shown to reduce the number and severity of hand injuries.
• Be aware of pinch points and stored energy (including gravity) when working so as to keep your hands out of harm’s way.  These should all be clearly captured as potential hazards on the FLHAs before work begins as well.
• Do not wrap tag lines around your hand or forearm… ever.
• Make sure that the tools that you select to use do not unduly put your hands at risk; keep your hands out of the line of fire (e.g., this is why we no longer use tools such as hammer wrenches)
• Change your gloves often when working in situations in which they can get extremely wet or dirty (and especially if they get soaked in a hydrocarbon or another flammable material or chemical).
• Help others to wear the right glove for the task by intervening with others, reminding them, and talking about the right glove for the job at toolbox talks and during FLHAs.

The days of having a missing finger as a “badge of honour” are truly gone; we need to be taking the time needed to protect one of the most important assets that we have – our hands.