Choosing Safer Hand Tools in Construction: Hazard Alert

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Center to Protect Workers' Rights
• Description:
  Construction workers use many hand tools, such as, hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, and tin snips, plus power tools, such as electric drills and screwguns. The Hazards: If you use hand tools over and over every day, you can injure your hand, wrist, or arm. You can be injured if you must hold on tight for a long time or keep twisting the handle, for instance. You can get carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, white finger, tendonitis, and other painful problems. They can force you to quit construction work. Protect Yourself : You can buy "safer" hand tools. Then, you can use them better. When You Buy a Hand Tool: Look for a tool that needs less force to use it. Look for a tool that is balanced and does not tip forward or back when you hold it. Look at the handle: It should be comfortable in your hand, not too thick or too small or too short; It should not conduct electricity or heat (work with a cold handle can make some repetitive stress injuries worse); It should not hurt your hand when you hold tight (you do not want sharp edges or finger grooves or ridges); If you can, get a non-slip handle; If you can, get a handle with a surface made of soft materials like rubber or plastic (you may want to get a special plastic or rubber sleeve or a custom grip kit for the handle; If you need to use a lot of force on the job, the handle should be long enough for your whole hand - not just your fingers (you want a power grip, not just a pinch grip); You can use a long handle as a lever to add to the force of a tool and save your hand; If you wear gloves when you use a tool, you may need a thicker handle (gloves can make it harder to hold onto a tool); For some tools, the handle should have a spring return; this re-opens the tool for you after you use it (the spring return saves wear and tear on your finger muscles); A bent angle or adjustable angle on some tools can help you keep your wrist straight on some jobs (you may need different tools on different jobs so you can keep your wrist straight - for instance, on walls, a pistol grip is better. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Construction Materials Cumulative Trauma Disorders Ergonomics Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Protective Clothing Safety Safety Management Vibration Workplace

  More +
• Keywords:
  Accident-potential Accident-prevention Arm-injuries Carpal-tunnel-syndrome Construction Construction-equipment Construction-industry Construction-materials Construction-workers Cumulative-trauma Cumulative-trauma-disorders Equipment-design Force Hand-injuries Hand-protection Hand-tools Hazards Human-factors-engineering Injuries Injury-prevention Muscle-stress Muscle-tension Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Power-tools Repetitive-work Safety-education Safety-engineering Safety-measures Safety-practices Tools Vibration-effects Work-environment Work-practices Worker-health

  More +
• Series:
  CPWR - Center for Construction Research and Training Publications
• Publisher:
  The Center to Protect Workers' Rights
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  2 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20039448
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: The Center to Protect Workers' Rights, 2001 Sep; :1-2
• Contact Point Address:
  Building and Construction Trades Dept., AFL-CIO: CPWR, Suite 1000, 8484 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2001
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  Center to Protect Workers' Rights
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  19940930
• Source Full Name:
  Choosing safer hand tools in construction: hazard alert
• End Date:
  20000331
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3893cf38110f95322a9d6b473930625d57c40acd3289e7354e627ef583cbd849d13e3ae219d4789b51d5abc1e7992bfbb70521f077a99529a63c9554603683ba
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213067/cdc_213067_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 528.02 KB ]