Common Steel Industry Injuries
Someone new to the steel or foundry industry might assume that the most common injuries would be heat- or burn-related. After all, glowing hot furnaces and molten metal are the most common images associated with this space. But you'd be surprised at how dangerous working in steel can be, and in so many different ways.
The two basic manufacturing platforms for making primary steel are through an oxygen blast furnace to produce liquid steel, and through mini-mills that use electric-arc furnaces. Once liquified, the steel is cast into slabs, billets, or other shapes and allowed to cool. These products are then rolled and shaped before reaching the finishing operations that may include coating, painting, and galvanizing prior to shipping.
Common hazards and Injuries
Either platform requires high-heat applications that result in over-heated surfaces, molten spills and splashing, radiation exposure, and high-heat working environments. Performing tasks in these environments create exposures to the following injuries:
- Heat stress/illness
- Thermal and chemical burns
- Vibration/impact hazards
- Sharp edges
- Shards that cause lacerations and embedded objects
- Heavy overhead suspended loads
- Electrical shock and electrocution (from failing to observe LOTO procedures)
But what about hand injuries specifically?
Latest trends from 2022 show hand injuries make up almost 25% of all OSHA-recordable cases. Production practices account for 23% of all hand injuries and maintenance practices produce 11%. Further, hand injuries resulting in an OSHA-recordable are the #1 most preventable injury! In high-heat environments, one in four hand injuries are caused by, yes, burns. And they're almost always lost-time injuries.
What does an injury cost?
It's easy to get overwhelmed with all the numbers, so let's keep it simple. A hand injury can result in a loss of essential function and impacts the injured person, their family, and their quality of life, while also inflicting serious mental and physical trauma. And yet, a work-related hand injury is the most preventable injury if proper assessments and precautions are observed.
Monetary costs must also be considered, both for the employer and the employee. In a lost-time injury, the employee could lose up to a week's wages that workers' compensation doesn't cover. Based on the extent of injury, a spouse or family member may also lose time from work helping in the healing and recovery. That can include getting the person to follow-up physician visits and rehab to helping the injured person get dressed.
Safety requires constant vigilance and protection
Here are just a few real-life examples that illustrate how the simplest lapse in judgment or caution can result in bodily harm to steel and foundry workers.
Example1: A maintenance employee is rebuilding a roller. While removing a metal shim from its packaging without the use of gloves, the employee slices his grease-caked and hydraulic fluid-soaked finger. It appears to be a simple incision with little bleeding, so the employee doesn't report it. Three days later, the contaminated finger is infected and requires medical treatment, medications, a tetanus shot, and two days away from work.
Example 2: A lathe operator brushes off metal shards with his ungloved hand, causing some shards to imbed/impale his hand and fingers, requiring medical treatment to remove them.
Example 3: A maintenance employee is placing rigging around a stuck billet at the cold saw and catches his wedding band on the corner of the steel, causing a ring avulsion.
How to keep steel/foundry workers safe
You must identify the hazards by having an effective risk assessment of the work environment and of specific tasks. Once hazards are identified, preventive and/or protective measures can be implemented.
Preventive measures include developing safe procedures for an assigned task, training the employees on the procedures, and ensuring the procedures, including the proper use of PPE, are followed.
Protective measures will identify the right PPE needed for the task with the employee's full knowledge that the reason for the PPE is because there are hazard exposures that cannot be removed for the task that needs to be done.
Each real-world example cited above could've been prevented by following the procedures and providing and wearing the appropriate hand protection. Even fully-trained and safety-minded workers can become distracted or can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's where PPE can be of the best help. It's the last line of safety for workers.