How to protect our hands from injury during labor

More than 90% of human activities are achieved through hands. The function of the hand is grip and sensation (including touch, pain, warm feeling, and spatial feeling). All bone joints, muscles, blood vessels, and nerve structures of the hand must be intact so that they can function correctly and perform various actions.

The hand is the most vulnerable part of the human body. There are many types and causes of injury to the hand and arm, and it is equal to the amount of work. In all accidents at work, hand injuries account for about a quarter. In general, hand injuries do not endanger life, but they can lead to life-long disability and loss of the ability to work and live. Therefore, the protection of hands and arms is a very important part of occupational safety.

Hand injury classification

Hand injuries can be classified as physical damage (fire and heat, cold, electromagnetic and ionizing radiation, electric shock), chemical damage (chemical corrosion), mechanical damage (impact, stab, bruise, bite, tear, etc.) Cuts, abrasions, and biological injuries (local infections). Among them, mechanical injuries are the most common. Mechanical damage to the hand can be closed or open. The former can affect bones, joints and muscles and sometimes affect the nerves; the latter is more serious because it can cause massive bleeding and affect other parts of the hand, and is also more complex in terms of treatment. The degree of hand injury varies widely, depending on the injury factor and the process. The most common work is cuts and stab wounds. Mild cuts only injure skin tissue, while severe wounds can injure other tissues and even cause partial or complete amputations; stab wounds can be severe due to the presence of foreign bodies in the wound. The extent of open hand injury is closely related to the degree of hand contamination at the time of injury. In general, chemical plants, slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, and leather products plants, such damage can easily lead to infection and other complications.

Due to the widespread use of high-pressure spray and injection equipment in modern industries, accidents caused by jet injuries have increased significantly. Although the pressure is not great, the pressure injected through the small aperture has far exceeded the pressure that causes clinical injury. This situation can be seen in internal combustion engines, spray guns, grease injection guns, plastic injection molding machines and certain auto repair equipment. If the jet does not strike the skin in a tangential direction, it will not cause skin cracking, and it will only be tingling at the beginning, and it will not be taken seriously until it feels serious when the ischemic pain increases. Sometimes, even if the amount of the spray is small, it causes ischemia. However, after a few days, thermal or chemical stimuli may occur. Since the spray contains solvents, it may cause systemic symptoms of poisoning.

Hand burns (sometimes accompanied by other burns) can be caused by fire, red hot body, hot air flow, chemicals, or electric shocks. The degree of injury depends on the contact time, burn area, and depth. Because such injuries occur frequently, they can sometimes be very serious and have become a special injury in work-related accidents.

Mechanical injuries are the most common and the consequences of electric shock and radiation are serious, so people are wary of them. Safety management departments also pay more attention to the hidden dangers of such accidents. However, the harm caused by exposure to toxic, irritating or allergic chemicals is often not recognized by most people. Although this chemical injury has not seen any injuries, the damage caused by the skin must not be ignored. It is one of the three major ways of occupational poisoning.

Employees who have suffered minor minor hand injuries may suffer from a condition known as Dupuytren's contracture, a condition characterized by contractile hardening of the palmar fascia, which can worsen the irreversible bending of the fingers. The disease may be caused by many factors (trauma, neurological disorders, endocrine disorders, rheumatism, vitamin E deficiency, etc.). Recent studies have shown that occupational factors are an important cause of the disease. Chronic inflammation caused by repeated minor hand injuries and small interstitial hemorrhages, vibrations caused by pneumatic tools and hand-held power tools are the cause of the disease.

Safeguard

The measures to protect hands and arms are the first to consider and fully equip protection measures when designing and manufacturing equipment and tools. The second is to properly control and improve the safety operation procedures and improve the safety precautions. For example, protective covers are installed on dangerous parts of equipment; shielded heat sources and radiation are provided; and hand tools with reasonable handles are provided. If these measures still cannot effectively prevent accidents, consider using personal protective equipment. Wear protective equipment such as hand and arm, or protective cream cream, etc. in the actual production, and provide regular protection. Protective equipment can be roughly divided into gloves, fingertips, hand pads, sleeves, elbow pads and so on. Due to the high temperature of the production environment during the work, the temperature of the skin also increases and sweating occurs, which increases the chance of the skin adhering to and absorbing toxic substances.

In addition to the human body's absorption of toxic substances, some of the poisons, although not absorbed through the skin, can adhere to human hands. At this time, if you do not wash your hands, or if you do not sterilize, you grab fruits and grab something to eat. Take these poisons into the digestive tract and into the blood to cause poisoning. Therefore, it is important to prevent hand injuries and occupational poisoning. Specific practices include:

1. Workplaces should prevent toxic substances from running, running, dripping or leaking.

2. When in contact with toxic substances, wear protective clothing, wear protective gloves, and apply protective cream if necessary.

3. Persons who come into contact with toxic substances must wash toxic substances adhering to skin and hands as soon as possible after the operation.

4. Hand contact with lead-containing toxic substances, after washing hands, placed in a solution containing 3% acetic acid soak for a minute or two, you can also soak in vinegar for two or three minutes.

5. Persons exposed to trinitrotoluene, i.e. nitramine explosives, should wash their hands with 5% sodium sulfite after the operation, or wash with 10%~15% sodium sulfite soap, and then identify them with the coloring agent after washing. The agent drips onto the skin in purple, indicating that it has not been washed yet and needs to be washed.

6. The hand contaminated with aniline can be cleaned with 75% alcohol and warm soapy water.

7. Personnel exposed to mercury should be washed with 1/5000 potassium permanganate solution after operation.