Hand Protection

Personal Health

Apr 23

Date Posted: 04/24/2023

Protecting your hands is vital for your work and quality of life. Work-related hand injuries are one of the leading reasons workers end up in the emergency room and miss work. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over 1 million workers are treated in the emergency room due to hand injuries. Damage to the nerves in your fingers and hands, loss of a finger, skin burns, or allergic reaction can negatively impact the quality of your work and your productivity – or worse – end your career and seriously detract from your quality of life. These types of injuries are preventable!

Common Types of Hand Injuries in Construction

Many hazards on construction sites can result in a hand injury, including:

Cuts and Lacerations

This is the most common hand injury in the workplace (63%). Minor injuries of this type can include small scratches or skin surface cuts, which can be easily treated with minor first aid. However, if nerves or tendons are severed, the injury can prove much more severe and have permanent consequences. The best way to protect yourself from a laceration & cut is to wear a cut-resistant glove with the proper cut-level protection when working with sharp objects, tools, or machinery.

Strains / Sprains and other musculoskeletal injuries

It may seem counter-intuitive, but many hand injuries involve your feet. Employees who slip on surfaces or trip over obstacles often land with significant force on their hands, causing wrist and hand injuries. Repetitive motion can also lead to problems such as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD).

Fractures, amputations, and crush injuries

When blunt trauma occurs, it is often around moving equipment and machinery. Due to the force and weight usually involved, the consequences of these injuries can be severe, including substantial bruising, broken bones, and even amputation. These injuries are frequently caused by contact with moving parts such as gears, belts, wheels, rollers, power tools, falling objects, gloves, or clothing getting caught and putting your hand in harm’s way or “breaking the plane” into a hazardous zone.

Burns

The most common burns in the workplace are thermal, electrical, or chemical. Thermal burns occur when the individual is exposed to steam, hot surfaces, or liquids. Electrical burns happen when a current passes through the body but meets resistance in the body's tissues, resulting in electrical burn injuries. Chemical burns result from hazardous substances which cause a chemical reaction in the skin. These burns continue to do damage until the chemical is washed away or the chemical reaction is complete.

Dermatitis, Skin irritation, and other skin disorders

Irritations to the skin, such as rashes and blisters, are caused by exposure to hazardous substances or even soaps and detergents. While the symptoms are often mild, some cases can lead to dermatitis, an inflammation of the skin. This can sometimes become so severe that the worker cannot continue to work. These injuries are primarily caused by direct contact with chemicals in products and materials.

Hazards that can Lead to Hand Injuries

Personal Hazards

A personal hazard is caused by something the worker wears that causes an accident. These items include jewelry, such as a watch or wedding band, loose clothing, or defective personal protective equipment.

Mechanical Hazards

Mechanical hazards include any situation where the hand or fingers can be crushed, severed, pinched, or caught in between. These involve moving parts such as tools, gears, chains, or rollers. Mechanical hazards also include objects that fall on the hand or fingers or anything that can cause damage while handling it. For example, hand tools fall under mechanical dangers if they are not in good working order or are handled/misused.

Contact Hazards

Contact hazards include anything that causes cuts to the hand or fingers. These risks include sharp edges on tools, protruding nails, sharp edges, packaging, containers, and other materials. While most contact hazards focus on cutting or puncturing the hand or fingers, items that can cause burns, such as chemicals, electrical currents, or extreme temperatures, also fall into the category.

Preventing Hand Injuries

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 70% of workers who experienced hand injuries were not wearing gloves. Therefore, the first and most essential step in preventing hand injuries on construction sites is to use the right pair of gloves for your task. According to research by Industrial Safety & Hygiene News (ISHN), “using the right pair of gloves for the task will reduce hand injuries by more than 60%”. Gloves should fit properly and be worn by the worker when required or necessary to see decreases in hand injuries. Gloves must also fit the task being performed (e.g., thermal-rated gloves for hot and cold, cut-rated gloves for handling sharp objects, chemical {e.g., Nitrile, Butyl, etc.} rated gloves for handling hazardous chemicals, etc.).

Selecting the Right Gloves for the Task

Multiple types of safety gloves including heat protection, leather, cryogenic, cut resistant, nitrile, and welding.

There are many factors to consider when choosing the right glove for a given task. For example, the amount of dexterity needed to perform a particular job must be weighed against the glove material recommended for the hazard(s) {e.g., cut, electrical, thermal, or chemical resistance} to protect your hands from an injury effectively. In some cases, mainly when working with delicate objects where fine dexterity is crucial, a bulky glove may become more hazardous in specific scenarios. Use the OSHA PPE Guide to select the appropriate glove for the task/hazards you will be exposed to.