Safety Topic of the Month: January 2000

Accident Prevention
Accident

An accident is any unplanned event that results in personal injury or in

property damage. The cause of most accidents is the failure of people,
equipment, supplies, or surroundings to behave or react as expected.

Accident Investigation

An accident investigation determines how and why accidents occur. The

investigation will lead to the cause(s) of the accident. By eliminating one or
more causes, most accidents are preventable.

Accident Prevention

Information obtained from an accident investigation is used to help prevent

future accidents from happening. Accident prevention is also accomplished
by conducting work safety inspections, reporting unsafe conditions, providing
training and performing regular "check ups" on equipment and tools.

What Can You Do to Prevent Accidents?

1. Report Any Unsafe or Potentially
Hazardous Conditions to:
a. Your supervisor/boss

b. Your Environmental Health and Safety Office

(Wash. U. or BJH/SLCH)

c. Or, take care of it yourself, it could be as easy as

closing a file cabinet drawer so no one trips over it,
keeping your work area clean, labeling hazards in the
workplace etc.
2. Make Sure the Equipment, Tools or
Machines You Use Are:
a. In good working order

b. Have machine guards in place

c. Are certified or maintained on a regular basis

d. Used properly and safely by yourself and others

3. Wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
a. Know what type of PPE to wear, for example, you
need to know the proper type of glove for the work
you do and the materials you work with.

b. Know the proper way to wear your PPE for

maximum protection.

c. Know how to take care of your PPE and perform

regular inspections to check for holes in gloves or
protective clothing, tears in respirators, chemical
saturation etc. If your job requires you to wear a
respirator for protection, you need to be fit tested
annually to ensure proper fit and protection.

1. Attend Annual Safety Training|

The Environmental Health and Safety Office provides
annual safety training for:
a. Office Staff

b. Laboratory Staff

c. Clinical Staff

d. Facilities Management Staff (divisions)

 In each training session, accident prevention topics
are discussed.

1. Use Caution When Your Work

Environment Changes:

Just like you know you should use more caution

when you are driving in the rain, you should
use more caution when your work environment
changes as well. Beating deadlines, lack of
sleep, being required to do something new with
little or no training etc. All these factors can
lead to an accident because of carelessness,
lack of training/knowledge or rushing to get
something done. We’ve all been there and a lot
of us have had accidents because of these
factors. Next time you find yourself in this
situation, take the time to think about what
you are doing and how you can be safe so you
don’t cause an accident.

Please do all you can to prevent accidents and make this a

Happy and Safe New Year!
1998 National Safety Council
Report on Injuries in America
Deaths and Injuries in the Workplace

There were 5,100 workplace fatalities in 1998

due to unintentional injuries. Approximately, an
additional 1,200 deaths in the workplace are
due to homicides and suicides each year. At
work, there is a fatal injury every 103 minutes
and a disabling injury every 8 seconds. In
1998, 3.8 million American workers suffered
from disabling injuries on the job.

The four leading fatal events and exposures

are highway traffic incidents, homicide, falls to
a lower level, and being struck by an object.
For women workers, homicides were the
leading cause of workplace injury deaths. The
agriculture industry accounted for 780 deaths
and 140,000 disabling injuries in 1998.
 Agriculture workers had the second highest
death rate among the major industry divisions.

Work injuries cost Americans $125.1 billion in

1998 -- that's equivalent to nearly triple the
combined profits reported by the top 5 fortune
500 companies in 1998.

PREVIOUS SAFETY TOPICS OF THE MONTH

August: Beat the Heat
September: Fire Safety
November: Holiday Safety
December: Time Management

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