Did you know? Each hand contains:
- 29 major and minor bones (many people have a few more).
- 29 major joints.
- At least 123 named ligaments.
- 34 muscles which move the fingers and thumb:
- 17 in the palm of the hand, and
- 18 in the forearm.
- 48 named nerves:
- 3 major nerves.
- 24 named sensory branches.
- 21 named muscular branches.
- 30 named arteries and nearly as many smaller named branches.
- The bones in your fingers are no stronger than a lead pencil.
Here are some hand statistics from the CDC and OSHA:
- If all workers, from medical to industrial and everything in between, would just wear gloves, then more than 1 million hospital emergency visits by U.S. workers per year could be avoided (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
- Hand Injuries have cost employers over $500 million dollars in the US last year (lost time, settlements, etc).
- Non-compliance of PPE hand protection is among one of the most common OSHA citations to date, costing employers on average $4,000 per citation.
OSHA 1910.132(h)(1) requires that protective equipment, including PPE, shall be provided by the employer at no cost to the employees. It’s not a one shot deal- as a business owner, you have to be compliant every hour of every day. Safety has to be top of mind, comfort leads to compliance. Don’t let your workers become a statistic!
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This article originally posted in Environmental Health & Safety's Speaking of Safety Blog. Environmental Health & Safety is a division of Risk Management. Visit the Speaking of Safety Blog here.