Hand Safety

            Manufacturing PPE is a high cost for companies and being in business means that you must recoup your costs to stay in business. Now some of you might say that it is a one-time, sunk cost and that is the price of doing business. Yes and No, standards for testing change based on new regulations, and product testing etc. different states have varying standards and PPE policies can be different from utility to utility. Testing products for ARC flash and FR are upwards of $20,000 per test.

            I am always amazed that companies will shell out $100,000’s of dollars for climbing equipment, FR clothing, FR rain gear, etc. And, will incur huge costs to revise and update training, standards, and safety procedures to be in compliance with mandated regulations. Then they will tell their workers that $40-50 for a pair of gloves is outrageous, WHAT? When I hear these things from linemen, supervisors etc. I tell them give me five minutes with the individual who is in charge with procurement, the safety supervisor, etc., and I can convince them to buy the best gloves on the market based on the cost of doing business alone.

True costs of hand injuries

Sobering statistics:

            A study appearing in Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery indicated that hand and wrist injuries represent the most expensive type of injury in the Netherlands, costing about U.S. $740 million annually. Stitches can cost up to U.S. $2,000, mending a laceration can cost up to $10,000 and repairing a severed tendon can exceed $10,000.

            The BLS (Bureau of Labor and Statistics) reports, “The average hand injury claim has now exceeded $6,000, with each lost-time workers’ compensation claim reaching nearly $7,500.” These numbers are only the tip of the iceberg. According to the American Society of Safety Engineers, indirect costs of injuries can be 20 times the direct costs. Indirect, virtually incalculable costs can include the expense of investigating the accident; lost worker productivity; training of a replacement employee; damage to workers’ morale that leads to absenteeism; and a negative impact on the company’s reputation.

            Let’s use the following numbers to illustrate costs; $6000 + $7,500 = $13,500. $13,5000/$50 (the cost of a pair of high-quality gloves) = 270, you could purchase 270 pairs of gloves for the cost of one accident. Let’s say that you (the employer) purchases gloves for your linemen every quarter so that’s 4 pairs a year at $50 each per lineman = $200. 13,500/200 = 67.5, that means you could supply one line worker 4 pairs of premium gloves for 67.5 years for the cost of one accident. Let me check the math: $200 = 4 pairs of gloves annually, $13,500 represents one accident, 13,500/200=67.5. It appears the math works.

            Throw some of those numbers out to your supervisor or the procurement specialist next time they balk at paying for the best hand protection you can get. You wouldn’t purchase your climbing gear, fall arrest harness, rubber gloves and FR clothing at Home Depot, would you? So why is it okay to allot money for hand protection for gloves that you can buy off the shelf at Home Depot?

References

• J Bone Joint Surg. Am, 2012 May 02; 94 (9): e56
• (https://www.ishn.com/articles/101557-get-a-grip-on-hand-injury-costs)
• http://www.ishn.com/articles/94029-drive-home-the-value-of-gloves–hand-injuries-send-a-million-workers-to-ers-each-year
• Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses
• http://www.asse.org/bosc-article-6/

There are currently two systems used to evaluate cut resistance, the U.S. Standard, ANSI/ISEA 105 and the European standard, EN 388, both currently use Level 5 to designate the highest level of cut resistance.

• http://www.the-osha-advisor.com/CASE.html
• http://www.foysafety.com/safety_news/Liberty%20Mutual%20Survey.pdf