IP : Identify Amputation Hazards and Prevention At Workplace

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Chapter : Injury Prevention

Identify Amputation Hazards  and Prevention At Workplace

Workplace accidents resulting in amputations are often severe, sometimes disabling, and always preventable.Amputations are widespread and involve a variety of activities and equipment.

Amputations occur most often when workers operate unguarded or inadequately safeguarded mechanical power presses, power press brakes, powered and non-powered conveyors, printing presses, roll-forming and roll-bending machines, food slicers, meat grinders, meat-cutting band saws, drill presses, and milling machines as well as shears, grinders, and slitters.

Amputations  injuries also happen during materials handling activities and when using forklifts and doors as well as trash compactors and powered and non-powered hand tools.  Besides normal operation, the following activities involving stationary machines also expose workers to potential amputation hazards: setting up, threading, preparing, adjusting, cleaning, lubricating, and maintaining machines as well as clearing jams.

A moment's inattention—and a hand is caught in machinery. A single misstep; a foot slips in. Maybe the amputation is immediate, or perhaps the doctors determine later that a limb is too damaged to repair. Either way, it could have been prevented. Most Hazardous Exposures Four exposures have been identified as the leading causes of nonfatal workplace amputations: Machinery and equipment. The greatest percentage of nonfatal amputations occurs when workers are caught in or crushed by running machinery or equipment, or when they are caught in or crushed by machinery that cycles unexpectedly. Parts or materials. The second most common situation that leads to nonfatal amputations occurs when workers are caught in, crushed by, or struck against parts and materials—for example, when a load shifts unexpectedly or stored materials collapse on a worker. Vehicles. Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of fatal amputations, and the third-leading cause of nonfatal amputations. Hand tools. Hand tools, such as handheld circular saws, are the fourth most common cause of non fatal amputation.

Types of machine components are hazardous:

 The following types of mechanical components present amputation hazards: 

• Point of operation—the area of a machine where it performs work on material.
• Power-transmission apparatuses—flywheels, pulleys, belts, chains, couplings, spindles, cams, and gears in addition to connecting rods and other machine components that transmit energy.
• Other moving parts—machine components that move during machine operation such as reciprocating, rotating, and transverse moving parts as well as auxiliary machine parts.

Kinds of mechanical motion are hazardous:

All mechanical motion is potentially hazardous.  In addition to in-running nip points (“pinch points”),
which occur when two parts move together and at least one moves in a rotary or circular motion that gears, rollers, belt drives, and pulleys generate.

The following are the most common types of hazardous mechanical motion:

• Rotating—circular movement of couplings, cams, clutches, flywheels, and spindles as well as shaft ends and rotating collars that may grip clothing or otherwise force a body part into a dangerous location.
• Reciprocating—back-and-forth or up-and down action that may strike or entrap a worker between a moving part and a fixed object.
• Transversing—movement in a straight, continuous line that may strike or catch a worker in a pinch or shear point created between the moving part and a fixed object.
• Cutting—action generated during sawing, boring, drilling, milling, slicing, and slitting.
• Punching—motion resulting when a machine moves a slide (ram) to stamp or blank metal or other material.
• Shearing—movement of a powered slide or knife during metal trimming or shearing.
• Bending—action occurring when power is applied to a slide to draw or form metal or other materials.

Watch For These Hazards When you look for amputation hazards on machinery and equipment, remember these hazards: Pinch points, where two parts move together and at least one of them is moving in a circle. Pinch points often occur along belt drives, chain drives, gear drives, and feeder rolls. Wrap points, where there is an exposed piece of rotating machinery, such as a rotating shaft, especially if it extends beyond bearings or sprockets. Because they can catch clothing or fingers more easily, shafts that are splined, square, or hexagonal are generally more dangerous. Shear points, where two moving parts move across each other or a single, sharp edge moves with enough speed or force to cut. Chain or paddle conveyors, trimmers, forklifts, and enclosed augers have shear points. Crush points, where two objects are moving toward each other, or one object is moving toward a stationary object. Gears are common crush points. Pull-in points, where objects can be pulled into equipment. Feeder rolls or grinders are common pull-in points. Thrown objects, hurled by equipment with moving parts. Chippers are known to be common sources of thrown objects. Measures For Preventing Amputation Work practices, employee training, and administrative controls can help prevent and control amputation hazards.  Machine safeguarding with the following equipment is the best way to control amputations caused by stationary machinery: Guards provide physical barriers that prevent access to hazardous areas. They should be secure and strong, and workers should not be able to bypass, remove, or tamper with them.  Guards should not obstruct the operator’s view or prevent employees from working. Devices help prevent contact with points of operation and may replace or supplement guards. Devices can interrupt the normal cycle of the machine when the operator’s hands are at the point of operation, prevent the operator from reaching into the point of operation, or withdraw the operator’s hands if they approach the point of operation when the machine cycles.  They must allow safe lubrication and maintenance and not create hazards or interfere with normal machine operation. In addition, they should be secure, tamper resistant, and durable.