Every day, people go to work in factories. While the work may be dangerous, many employees assume that they will not be injured because they take all of the necessary precautions to avoid getting hurt. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
Factory injuries can and do occur regularly, often causing serious and permanent damage. If you have been injured while working in a factory, it is important to understand your rights and options moving forward. There are all sorts of machines and tools that can easily cause an injury.
7 Common Factory Injuries
1. Cuts or Lacerations
Any time sharp items come into close contact with skin, there is a chance for cuts and lacerations to occur. This can happen with knives and other sharp objects and machineries such as saws and shears.
Because cuts and lacerations do not often lead to death, they don’t typically receive much press coverage. However, it is important for those in factory settings who work around machines with sharp blades to be aware of the risks.
2. Eye Injuries
It may be a surprise that eye injuries are considered one of the most common factory injuries. Because eye injuries often go untreated — even minor ones — this statistic makes sense once you consider it more carefully.
Eye injuries can include foreign objects entering the eye, being struck by an object or substance, chemical burns or abrasions around the eyes, and tears or irritants damaging the cornea.
3. Burns
Another one of the most common factory injuries is burns. While any part of the body could be burned — including internal organs — it is typically the hands and arms that are injured because workers must have their hands on hot items or objects with heat-producing chemicals to complete tasks.
It doesn’t help that clothing often gets caught on equipment causing employees to sustain burns when they are pulled too close to a piece of equipment or some other dangerous hot object.
4. Repetitive Stress Injuries
Repetitive stress injuries are some of the most common factory injuries for those who perform labor-intensive tasks on an assembly line or work long hours making repetitive motions with their hands and arms frequently.
RSI, as it is also known, happens gradually over time so that workers don’t even realize how their bodies have been affected until after they have sustained chronic pain, arthritis, and other debilitating conditions of the muscles, tendons, nerves, and joints.
5. Slipped and Tripped
Many factory workers sustain injuries that result from slipping or tripping on uneven areas of floors that are not properly protected with floor strips to warn employees about hazardous areas.
Workers also slip, trip, or fall due to faulty equipment (such as chairs without wheels), which they attempt to use while performing difficult tasks throughout the day. This is a common type of injury for those who work long hours without necessary breaks given throughout their shift.
6. Leg Injuries
Knocked knees, tripping over objects, falling off stairs, and even dog bites are all common causes of leg injuries in factory settings. These injuries happen to employees who ignore their surroundings or don’t lift items properly.
Because these types of accidents can occur simply because someone did not hold an object close enough while lifting it (and it slipped), the proper training for preventing this type of accident should be part of every workplace safety program.
7. Back Injuries
When a person has to work for eight hours a day in a fixed position doing the same task repeatedly, it’s only inevitable that this person will feel back pain from being hunched or bent over while looking at their workstation. There have also been incidents where people get back injuries from overexerting themselves while moving an object that’s too heavy for them to handle.
Conclusion
Factory workers can suffer from various injuries. By knowing about the most common factory injuries, workers can take help from Atlanta workers compensation lawyer to protect themselves and seek medical help if necessary.
