CG District 1 Casualties Offer Safety Lessons

Details

• Personal Author:
  Backus A ; Backus A
• Description:
  The First District Coast Guard logged 349 general ''casualties" for 2007. In this context, casualty means an incident that the Coast Guard investigates. The closest any year has come to this number of casualties was 1997 when there were 307. A number of these were preventable. The accompanying table shows the different types of casualties. For 2007, the number of EPIRB related casualties - meaning false alarms - was 73. In other years, EPIRB-related casualties were lower. For example, in 1999 the district logged 271 casualties and only 20 of them were EPIRB-related. In 2008, in an effort to understand the causes of these EPIRB casualties, District 1 began keeping a separate log to collect information about EPIRB activations. The list of probable causes of false activation includes icing, battery removal, sea spray, removal to a shipyard without disabling the unit, transfer of title to a new owner without disabling the unit, and malfunction. Just remembering to disengage the EPIRB unit when changing owners or dry-docking your vessel can save the Coast Guard numerous search and rescue missions. The number of injuries and medevacs for 2007 totaled 35. Eight of these involved heart and/or high blood pressure situations and eight involved finger, bone, or musculoskeletal injuries. There were three seizures, three allergic reactions, three passing out/collapsing incidents, one man overboard, one carbon monoxide exposure, and eight other injuries not described. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Exposure Hunting Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Equipment Maintenance Equipment Reliability Exposure Levels Fishing Fishing Industry Injuries Personal Protection Personal Protective Equipment PPE Risk Factors Safety Culture Safety Education Safety Equipment Safety Measures Training Work Environment Workers

  More +
• ISSN:
  0273-6713
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article ; Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062864
• Citation:
  Commercial Fish News 2008 May; :19A
• Contact Point Address:
  Ann Backus, MS, Director of Outreach, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston MA
• Email:
  abackus@hohp.harvard.edu
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0) ; Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard School of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Commercial Fisheries News
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:75dcd625f5ff2268944abd5a04d9e4e1c1a049efc792e0c0174ed23f6223d40a00bc2b527a71722d7bdd91f1e3338932549df46e990675b783f29e4129dae118
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226038/cdc_226038_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 404.62 KB ]