Hand Safety Handbook

Get started improving hand safety; it’s up to you to make it work! Hand safety starts at the top, with the highest levels of management actively promoting and modeling safe behavior. This sends a message that the company is serious about safety and helps establish a culture of safety throughout the ranks. A first step to take is to partner with a respectable glove manufacturer in developing your hand safety program. A good partner can help you analyze your operations, the hazards specific to your workplace, your past injury rates, and your PPE budget. They can also help you: • Assess risks. Are the risks in your operation purely cut-related? Or are there puncture risks too? If so, your distributor partner can help you assess your overall protection needs. • Collect data. Get the data in the form of outside lab results for cut tests that help you focus on true comparisons among gloves tested with different standards (ASTM/ISO vs. EN). • Test, test, test. Conducting safe and scientific tests with typical hazards is important. A hunting knife in the conference room does not qualify! A trusted distributor/manufacturer can help you set up a safe test for a true work hazard in the real world. • Keep good records. If you don’t already, begin collecting injury data with pictures and an assessment of what happened so you can track successes over time with your program. This will also help you evaluate new products in future testing. Hand safety resources

HexArmor: http://www.hexarmor.com/

ISHN Magazine (Safety, Health, Industrial Hygiene Issues): http://www.ishn.com

National Safety Council: http://www.nsc.org/pages/home.aspx

Occupational Safety and Health Administration: https://www.osha.gov/

Resources and links Environmental Health & Safety Today Magazine: http://ehstoday.com/

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