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Essay On Injury Rates

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Workers injury rates in occupational settings are drastically increasing. According to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) injury rate in 2011 increased by almost 13% in contrast to 2010 (1). Amongst numerous occupations, waste management has been a more injury prone occupation than most (2). In 2010 report, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) described garbage collection as one of the most “hazardous jobs” with 35% injuries and a mortality rate of 30 per 100 000 garbage collectors (3). Although deaths are not so common, injuries including back strain, cuts and exposure to bacteria and toxins is always threatening (3). According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) around 1,080,000 hand injuries are …show more content…

Literature Review
Despite the numerous hand injuries occurring each year, 70% of workers aren’t wearing hand protection, while another 30 aren’t wearing the right gloves (17). A glove from one firm may not have the same chemical resistance as a glove that appears to be an identical glove made by another firm (12). There are many variations of gloves available today to protect from hazards, however nature of hazard and the operation will have an impact on the selection of the gloves (10). OSHA’s hand protection guideline indicates some factors that impact the selection of protective gloves used in a workplace: types of chemicals handled, nature and duration of contact, area requiring protection (hand only, forearm, arm), grip requirements, thermal protection, size and comfort and abrasion/resistance requirements (10). In some instances, companies tend to adapt a technique called “double gloving” which is the overlapping of two pairs of gloves, one over the other (12). When worn, it affords a double layer of protection (12). If the outer glove starts to degrade or tears open, the inner glove continues to offer protection until the gloves are removed and replaced (12). This technique isn’t the most optimal however provides additional protection to the pair of gloves underneath. The

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