How to Prevent Injuries at a Manufacturing Facility

AUSTIN, Texas - June 16, 2016 - PRLog -- If you are responsible for worker health and safety in a manufacturing work environment, you know that injury prevention at work is a serious business. We'll take a look at the latest occupational research on the top causes of workplace injuries. We'll also identify practical workplace safety tips that can help keep your workers healthy and productive - while limiting your exposure to workers compensation claims.

What's the cost of non-fatal workplace accidents in lost income and productivity?
According to the 2016 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index, the most serious non-fatal disabling workplace injuries cost nearly $62 billion in direct U.S. workers compensation claims.

That figure is quite sobering.

It's nearly as high as the estimate for lower back pain - over $85 billion* - calculated by Stanford University researchers.

(*This estimate is for both work and non-work based injuries)

Which are the most injury prone Manufacturing industries?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) keeps track of different rates of manufacturing accidents within 21 different manufacturing sub-categories, ranging from primary metal manufacturing to plastics and rubber products manufacturing.

Looking at the chart we created from the BLS's 2014 data, it's clear that wood product manufacturing has the highest rate of non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses*.

(*We are counting non-fatal injuries that resulted in employee days off, employee work restrictions or employee job transfer.)

Food manufacturing and nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing are ranked as second and third most dangerous respectively.  Surprisingly, petroleum and coal products manufacturing have the third 'safest' rate of accidents in BLS' records (again this is for non-fatal accidents). Computer and electronic product manufacturing had the second lowest accident incident rate.

Can you guess which industry sector had the lowest rate for non-fatal accidents? It is beverage and tobacco product manufacturing.

Which manufacturing industry sectors have the highest and the lowest absolute number of accidents?
Now let's take a quick look at which manufacturing industry sectors ranked in terms of an absolute number of non-fatal accidents. (Naturally this number will vary from the rate because of the different sized industry sectors.)

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