Help is at hand

Despite an increasing number of construction firms
adopting a mandatory glove wearing policy for their sites
injuries to the hands,arms,fingers and wrists are still all too
common occurrences.Donald Gillespie offers an insight into
the real and measurable benefits of adopting a focused
hand and arm protection programme

Hand and arm hazards on the UK’s
construction sites take many
forms, from hazardous chemical
substances coming into contact with the
skin such as cement to cut hazards from
handling sheet metal, skin damage from
repeated exposure to bricks and blocks
along with the weather associated risks
created from working outdoors on site in
the winter and the risk of a lack of grip
from hands that are cold.

Despite the positive impact that safety
initiatives to tackle key problem areas on
site have had, one of the main challenges
for the industry is still the preventable
injuries to hands and arms that take place
on site.

While rarely life threatening, these
injuries can often result in workers having
to take time off work with the increased
risk of accident litigation particularly in
today’s ‘where there’s blame there’s a
claim’ compensation climate.

Adopting a proactive hand protection
programme is not simply about issuing
gloves to employees or having a mandatory
glove wearing policy on site.

Workers often recognise the tasks that
pose a real and immediate threat to their
hands and arms. Where these high-risk
tasks are undertaken, workers are far more
ready to adopt the PPE measures put in
place.

Where PPE compliance becomes
tougher however is in the everyday tasks
undertaken on site, that, while carrying a
very real risk to the hands and skin, may
not induce an immediate injury or leave
the skin looking damaged straight away.

As a result, workers may, incorrectly,
consider these jobs are low risk and be
more likely to take a relaxed approach to
glove wearing and either not use them at
all or use them infrequently.

Involving workers in glove
selection
The challenge for the industry is to drive
home the message that just because a task
doesn’t result in an immediate injury, it
doesn’t mean the task is not hazardous.

It is no longer good enough to simply
give workers gloves and tell them to wear
them, without reinforcing the reasons why
you are asking them to and highlighting
the very real dangers of not wearing them,
reinforcing the message that PPE is there
to help, encouraging workers to see it as a
benefit to them rather than a hindrance.

One of the critical steps in getting
worker buy in to the hand protection
programme can lie in the initial glove
selection process, with workers involved in
glove trials providing feedback on their
effectiveness for the task in hand, comfort,
dexterity and longevity. By doing this, staff
will be more likely to wear their gloves
because they have helped to choose them.

Once the glove ranges have been
selected, the goal is then to encourage
workers to actively continue to want to
wear the gloves provided long after an
induction programme or toolbox talk has
finished. If this can be achieved, then the
chances of preventing hand injuries and
skin disease on site will increase.

A recent project with Kier Group, where
research was undertaken across several of
the company’s sites to see how the hand
protection message could be reinforced,
resulted in the creation and launch of a
poster campaign across the company.

The site research highlighted that there
are many more opportunities available to
get the hand protection message across.

While notice boards and canteen walls
remain staple locations, modern urinal
blocks, specific site entry points with built
in poster areas and stair systems that have
replaced traditional scaffold and ladders,
provide added opportunities to get the
safety message out to where it is needed
most – in the heart of a site where people
are coming into direct contact with hand
hazards.

This resulted in Kier adopting a new
approach to hand protection
reinforcement with a poster campaign
focusing on life outside work.

“Hand protection has been a focus for
Kier for several years. We have identified
the main tasks being undertaken on site
and sourced a range of gloves relevant to
those tasks that provided the right level of
protection for the hazard being
encountered – whether bricklaying,
glazing, roofing or undertaking general
handling tasks on site. In addition to
provision of the right products, a major
focus for us has been to educate workers
on site. In the last 18 months this has
developed further to make workers think
about the impact that a hand injury or skin
disease could have on them out of their
working environment, what it could deny
them and the impact it could have on
them socially,” said Andy Turrell,
construction health manager for Kier.

“This has now become a central part of
our Hand and Arm protection approach
through a series of site posters that have
been produced which takes a new
approach to a serious message, inviting
workers to “do yourself a favour and make
sure you wear your gloves on site”.

“If we can make people stop and think
about how hand injuries can impact them
and their free time, and social and family –
denying them the opportunity to play
sport or go out with friends – then it gives
the PPE message an added real life
dimension.

Hands remain the driving force for
many businesses across the UK, so we need
to look at every possible way to make
people buy into the hand protection
programme. This will be done through
good hand protection selection in the first
place, through on-going training
programmes and through initiatives that
keep reinforcing the message at the point
at which they are working.

Donald Gillespie works for Marigold
Industrial. Stand 54.