Canadian Occupational Safety

April 2014

Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.

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22 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com The cost of work-related hand injuries can add up. The average total incurred cost per claim for 2009-10 in the United States was almost $29,000, accord- ing to the National Safety Council in Chicago. Those costs can compound quickly, from absenteeism and lost productiv- ity to fi nes and damage to equipment. Gloves, like any type of personal protective equipment, should be part of an overall safety strategy, says Chris- topher Liddy, occupational health and safety specialist with the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), based in Hamilton. The purpose of a protective glove is to provide workers with a safety device that protects one of their most valuable assets — their hands. If the protection itself causes harm to the hands in the form of discomfort or even strain and injury over time, then the purpose of the protective glove has been defeated, says Angela Fisher, product development manager with Stanstead, Que.-based Jomac Canada, a subsidiary of Wells Lamont. If the glove is uncomfortable, a worker is less likely to wear it. When it comes to hand injuries on the job, workers are not wearing gloves in 70 per cent of all cases, according to Work-Related Hand Injuries and Upper Extremity Amputations from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The remaining injuries are a result of wearing damaged gloves or the wrong type of glove. "Do you really need any other reason to choose ergonomically designed gloves?" says Joe Geng, vice-president of Acton, Ont.-based Superior Glove Works. CONSIDER NEW TECHNOLOGIES The problem, at least in the past, was that gloves were thick and bulky, often making it harder for a worker to per- form a particular task with gloves on — and sometimes resulting in strains and pains. The industry, as a result, has taken steps to improve both comfort and dexterity — and there's a lot of science and technology that goes into the new fabrics available today. Ansell, for example, designs gloves with various stitch designs that focus on the fatigue areas of hand. "When you're constantly working on a particular application, the hand is naturally going to get fatigued because you're using the same B uying gloves for work- ers may sound like a fairly straightforward task, but there's more to it than one might assume. Not only do you want to protect workers from hand injuries — everything from repetitive stress to chemical burns — you also want them to be comfortable and productive. Often, these go hand in hand. By Vawn Himmelsbach FITS LIKE A GLOVE ERGONOMIC GLOVE DESIGN KEEPS WORKERS COMFORTABLE AND PRODUCTIVE LIKE A

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