PPE: Hand Protection

Course Description:

Hands and fingers are complex and versatile tools we use for so many things that we often take them for granted. Think about how difficult it would be to do everyday tasks, such as eating, dialing a phone, using hand tools, or operating machinery, if you had a broken finger, a severely cut thumb, a deep puncture in your palm, or another similar hand injury. Despite the importance of using our hands in daily life, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has found that nearly a quarter of workplace injuries involve hands or fingers, with 70 percent of these incidents related to workers not wearing gloves and the other 30 percent related to using improper or damaged gloves. Fortunately, you can avoid hand injuries if you remember to wear the right gloves for the job and keep them in good condition.

Why “PPE: Hand Protection” Matters:

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) studies have found that nearly one-fourth of work injuries involve hands or fingers.

OSHA also found that 70 percent of workers sustaining hand injuries were not wearing gloves.

OSHA found that the other 30 percent were wearing improper or damaged gloves.

We can probably conclude that if we were to wear the gloves, that they were the proper gloves for the job, and that the gloves were in good condition, we are not likely to sustain a hand injury. We will spend this training session determining the hand hazards and selecting the proper gloves for the job.

Key Points:

• Know the potential hand hazards in your workplace.
• Understand the types of gloves needed to protect against chemicals in your workplace.
• Wear cut-resistant gloves when using knives or working with sharp objects.
• Keep hands out of a machine’s danger zone.
• Do not wear gloves around machinery with moving parts.