Cuts, Punctures and Laceration Incidents Cuts, Punctures and Laceration Incidents Company Harlan McPhee North McPhee South Powerhawke Ravex Richards Company Using the Form Job Name * Job Name and/or Number Date * Cuts, Punctures and Laceration Incidents In continuing to address the high hazard sources of injuries for Phalcon, let’s review some our injuries associated with cuts, punctures and lacerations and the lessons learned from them. Note that all of the injuries listed below were severe enough that they required stitches for treatment. An employee was cutting zip ties using his utility knife. When he was cutting the last one, the employee applied too much pressure as he was cutting toward himself and he stabbed his arm. The wound punctured a vein in his arm and was bleeding heavily. Lesson Learned: Always cut away from yourself. If a utility knife must be used, one with a self-retracting blade would have prevented the injury. Use blades with a rounded nose. The next few injuries were also lacerations to arms: • Employee was pulling wire and hit their elbow on a junction box. • Employee was working off of a ladder pulling MC Cable and their arm came in contact with a sharp metal stud in the ceiling. • Employee was working in a wall and was cut deeply by a metal stud. Injury required surgery to reattach a tendon. • Employee was working in the ceiling and cut his arm on a piece of ceiling grid. • Employee was working above the ceiling and backed his elbow into a cut end of a metal stud lacerating his elbow. With these types of injuries, recognizing that there is a hazard present in your work area is key. Using the 20/20/20 program, take 20 seconds when you get to your work area to evaluate the work area for any potential hazards. Mitigation for these exposure would have been best addressed by eliminating the hazard by covering up the sharp edges. Sometimes this is not practical, so the exposure can be addressed with PPE. Wearing long sleeve shirts will provide some protection but the best protection would come from Kevlar/cut resistant sleeves. A Foreman was cleaning up scraps of MC Cable that they had stripped away from wires. As he was bending one end of the jacket, the other end flung up and hit him in the face. The employee swatted at the MC Cable and in doing so, the jagged end cut his eyelid – he was not wearing safety glasses. The employee felt that since they were working alone on the job, safety glasses were not needed. Lesson Learned: This is a great example of why we require 100% safety glasses. This exposure came from our actions, but some of time the exposure is created by others. The employee was very lucky that he didn’t sustain a significant injury to his eye. Employee was descending a ladder and using a stud to balance himself. The inside edge cut through the glove causing a laceration injury to his right hand pinky finger. Lesson Learned: There are limitations to PPE and the protection they provide. That’s one of the reasons that PPE is always the last choice when mitigating hazards. The best thing to do is to eliminate the hazard. In this case, it probably would have been better to balance himself by grabbing onto the ladder he was on. In another case an employee was changing an 8’ fluorescent light bulb in the upstairs storage area of the shop. When he attempted to remove the bulb from the fixture, the bulb shattered resulting in lacerations to both thumbs. The right thumb sustained a minor laceration, however; his left thumb received a substantial laceration. Lessons Learned: Hazard recognition. Thinking worst case (the bulb breaking) and taking action based on that to protect himself (cut resistant gloves). As you can see, there are many different ways to be injured from lacerations, cuts and punctures. Be aware of your surroundings and recognizing the hazards that are present and wear the proper PPE. Additional Comments Foreman Name * Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Toolbox Talk Attendee Attended By (Required) Picture Upload Drop a file here or click to upload Choose File Maximum upload size: 52.43MB reCAPTCHA Submit Δ
