While most of us don’t think about it, workplace injuries are still a relatively large problem in certain industries. These can happen in the blink of an eye and can have potentially dire consequences. While they have decreased in recent years, the statistics for workplace injuries still aren’t the best and there is a lot of room for improvement.
The most important part of reducing these injuries (in addition to stricter rules and protocols) is taking steps to educate people about injury prevention. A part of this is to be aware of the various type of accidents that can take place at work, to better protect yourself. With that in mind, here are a few types of workplace incidents that can cause serious injury at the workplace.
Repetitive Motion Injuries
While these are often subtle injuries compared to some of the more catastrophic you will learn about later, they are probably the most common and can nag people for years. With people working long hours, every day with only a break or two, repetitive motion or stress injuries are something most people deal with.
These injuries can be anything from hand or arm pain from moving boxes or working on a computer, back pain from lifting, eye strain from staring at a screen and more. The long-term effects of these can be rough on the employee, but also on the company. Stats show that injuries cost companies hundreds of billions of dollars in lost productivity each year. These injuries don’t get enough publicity for how prevalent and daunting they can be for millions of people to deal with every year.
Slips and Falls
No matter what sort of job you have or environment you work in, there is always the risk of slipping, tripping on something or falling. Whether the ground was just mopped, or there are some items left in the hallway, not watching your step can have terrible consequences. Head injuries, back injuries, and a variety of other injuries can occur.
In order to prevent these types of injuries, employees should always be mindful of their surroundings and take the extra second to make sure an area is safe. Also, it is up to the employer to keep high-traffic areas free from debris and to always ensure proper signage if an area is wet or slick.
Explosions and Fires
Unexpected fires and explosions can be some of the most horrific accidents that can occur at the workplaces. These can have a number of different causes such as negligence with chemicals, faulty gas lines, open flames not being respected and so much more. In addition to the obvious injuries that can happen in the initial blast, inhalation of the smoke or toxic items can lead to further injuries.
Of course, in order to prevent these, you need to have solid safety protocols in place, and you need to be able to report anything faulty or out of place that you might notice. This could be the difference between a disaster occuring or being stop before the accident is able to occur.
In conclusion, while some of these accidents might not happen at your particular workplace, they are definitely common in other industries and are important to know about. You never know, you (or someone you know) might take a new job in which these injuries or accidents are common, and knowledge and prevention of these injuries will be very important.
