Bonus
True or False: Gloves eliminate all hand hazards.
FALSE
What is an area called where your hand or fingers could become trapped between two objects?
Pinch Point
Name one thing you should inspect before using gloves.
Condition, fit, damage, or suitability for the task.
True or False: If the proper tool is available, you should use it instead of putting your hand in harm’s way.
TRUE
A task has caused several minor hand injuries. Employees are already wearing the required gloves. Using the hierarchy of controls, name ONE way you could reduce the risk without simply adding more PPE.
Eliminate/reengineer the task, guarding, automation, fixtures/jigs, tools that keep hands away, process changes, substitution, engineering controls.
You can make only ONE immediate improvement to a task with a known hand hazard: provide a more protective glove, retrain employees, or redesign the process so hands no longer enter the hazard area. Which would generally provide the strongest hazard control?
Redesign/control the process to remove hands from the hazard
Why....because controlling the hazard is generally stronger than relying primarily on PPE or employee behavior.
No one has been injured, but employees report that parts occasionally shift unexpectedly, gloves sometimes get nicked, and employees frequently reposition material by hand. What do these three observations have in common?
They're warning signs/leading indicators of hand-injury exposure.
An employee receives a serious hand injury. The investigation shows they were trained, wearing the correct PPE, following the standard work, the machine was properly guarded, and no company safety rule was violated. If you cannot simply say “employee error,” where do you investigate next?
Task design, equipment, human-machine interaction, line-of-fire exposure, ergonomics, tools/fixtures, abnormal conditions, effectiveness of existing controls, and whether the hazard could be eliminated or engineered out