The Health and Safety Review magazine has published a supplement with their most recent issue which sets out some interesting statistics for workplace health and safety, such as the top five causes of injuries, or the top five illnesses in the last year.
The numbers make for interesting reading, and whilst when you think about it they will not be much of a surprise, to see them all categorised and laid out so clearly can give food for thought, as over 509,831 work days were lost due to illness in 2012. This figure is up from 2011 (506,403) and significantly so from 2010 (423,394).
- The top five causes of injuries are:
- Manual Handling (34%)
- Slips/Trips/Falls (18%)
- Shock/Fright/Violence/Aggression (7%)
- Body Movement (5%)
- Fall from a Height (5%)
Top Tip: A clear manual handling policy & proper training would go a long way to reducing the top reason for injuries, as this equates to almost the sum of the other 4 combined.
- The top five parts of the body injured are:
- Back (23%)
- Fingers (9%)
- Leg (7%)
- Ankle (7%)
- Hand (7%)
Top Tip: Again manual handling training and policies could reduce the large amount of back related injuries that occur at work, as proper lifting techniques could prevent a large number of injuries
- The top five illnesses are:
- Stress (297)
- Conjunctivitis/eye (109)
- Anxiety/depression (58)
- Sciatica (44)
- Nervous debility/bereavement (34)
Top Tip: Notice how stress is considered to be an illness, Employers must take note of this as staff in the banking/finance sector have the highest rate of work related stress in the workforce, and on occasion this can lead to long term illness keeping staff out of work for over 2 months
- The top five work environments where injuries occur are;
- Production ares/Factory/Workshop (17%)
- Hospital (16%)
- Public Roads/Parking Areas (10%)
- Shop/Sales Area (8%)
- Storage/Loading/unloading Areas (7%)
Top Tip: As expected factories and production areas had the highest rate of injuries however hospitals are narrowly behind and these two environments should be well assessed by Health and Safety personnel to look at any risks that may exist within the premises.
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