Think about everything you did with your hands today, before you even got to work. They are the most used tools in almost any job, and the most frequently injured. Nearly 400,000 hand injuries occur in American workplaces every year, according to the National Safety Council, accounting for roughly 30 percent of all workplace injuries. The average workers' compensation claim for a hand injury runs about $13,000. That's before accounting for the recovery time, the lost wages, and the permanent consequences that can follow.
The most important statistic in hand safety is not the number of injuries. It's this: 80 percent of workplace hand injuries happen to workers who were not wearing gloves at the time of the accident. Not workers who didn't have gloves. Workers who had gloves, and weren't wearing them.
The reasons are familiar: the task seemed quick, the gloves were uncomfortable, it didn't seem worth the bother. Thirty seconds of that reasoning accounts for the majority of 400,000 injuries.
The hands most at risk belong to newer workers, about 40 percent of hand injuries involve employees with less than one year on the job. And the tasks most likely to cause injury aren't the dramatic ones. About 70 percent of hand injuries happen during routine maintenance or inspection work, not high-hazard operations.
The rule is simple enough to fit on a sign: if your hands are near the work, the gloves go on first. Every time. Not almost every time. Every time.