Newspapers / The Badin Bulletin (Albemarle, … / June 1, 1920, edition 1 / Page 17
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SADIN bulletin Page Seventeen Continual Carelessness Causes Casualties SAFETY DEPARTMENT 'ALLASSEE hink safety )OWER RACTICE SAFETY lOMPANY »AUTION SAFETY How Do You Treat Your Hands? The human hand is without question the most wonderful mechanical appliance existence. Its strength and flexibility, together with its ready adaptability to Conditions of every conceivable kind, ^ake it an invaluable instrument to the ftian who owns it. If there were only ^ few hands in existence, and they could be bought for money, the price that they ^ould bring would doubtless exceed anything we can guess or imagine. In J'eal life^ how do we find men and women Using these wonderful implements? We Set them for nothing; but we can nave but one pair. Do we therefore ti’eat them with the care that we would estow upon a wat’ch or some other use 'll piece of mechanism of human con struction? We do not. We take all inds of chances with them, and allow them to become infected, bruised, muti- ^ted, and even cut off, when to pre serve them in their full efficiency we should merely have to exercise reason able forethought in using them. Many ^ wian takes better care of a good chisel ^ good ax than he does his own right and if our hands were not se curely attached to our bodjes some of us ^ould no doubt leave them out in the ack yard at night. Injuries to the ands head the list in/the accident statis- of quit^ ' a number of industries^ in nearly all industries such ac^i- ents are prominent. To cure this state affairs, it is important—first, to pro- '^ide proper safeguards wherever they ^ould be useful and effective; and sec- to exercise greater care when using ® hands. Obviously we cannot place Suard around every single object .that cause injury to the hands. We ^^nnot guard the carpenters’ hammer, Saw, or ax, nor can we place a guard ,, °^t the hands themselves without ereby destroying their usefulness tem porarily. Another related cause of hand ^Juries is the habit of letting the hands ander about without direction or con- *ous control, as when we make ges- ^Ures while talking. This is specially azardous near electrical apparatus, be- Use it is easy to place the hands in utact with live conductors, or bring them close enough in the case of high tension apparatus to receive a shock without actual contact. Often the hand is placed carelessly on an object which is immediately found to be burning hot, and at other times we may thrust it against a gear wheel or some other dan gerous piece of moving machinery. When we suffer an injury in this manner, we may be wholly unable to guess how our hands happened to be in the danger zone. But they get there now and then, if we do not attend to what we are doing. The most prolific sources of accidents to the hands are probably—first, han dling materials, and second, using hand tools. In the metal working industries, the handling of raw stock and partly finished product causes many hand ac cidents. Slivers and cuts from handling lumber, bruises and blisters from han dling or mishandling brick, tile, stone, pipe, and rods may be avoided, or at all events minimized, by wearing proper gloves, or doing the work in a rational way. Sheets of metal having sharp or jagged edges often cause cuts, and in foundries, shops, and other places, the handling of small castings, especially those having “fins,” is likely to cause laceration. Fingers are often bruised or crushed when the men are depositing heavy ob jects on a floor, platform, or bench. A full realization of the likelihood of in jury, and the simultaneous and conse quent exercise of due care, appear to be the most effective remedies for prevent ing accidents of this class, where heavy objects must be set down frequently. It is often a good plan, however, to nail strips of wood to the top of the plat form or bench upon which they are to rest—the strips being somewhat thicker than a finger, and laid parallel to one another, with spaces of perhaps four inches between. The workman can ease a weight down upon a surface of this kind without any danger if he will give A MACHINE SHOP SAFETY COMMITTEE Left to Right: M. S. Ragsdale, E. N. Evans, T. L. Chambers, J. C. Cashatt
The Badin Bulletin (Albemarle, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 1, 1920, edition 1
17
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