Amputations, other press hazards targeted by OSHA
Ten industries with high rates of amputations and other injuries related to power-press hazards are targeted for special enforcement and education emphasis by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Washington, DC.
OSHA will focus on 10 manufacturing industries that include more than 22,000 employers and more than one million workers. Those industries experienced more than 650 amputations in 1994, the most recent year for which data are available, and they accounted for nearly 10% of all amputations in manufacturing. Local OSHA offices also may expand the enforcement effort to focus on other industries if they decide that those local employers face similar hazards, according to an announcement released recently by OSHA.
The 10 industries were targeted by using OSHA’s inspection records and workplace injury data. These are the industries that OSHA will focus on to prevent power-press injuries:
• hardware;
• fabricated structural metal;
• metal doors, sash, frames, molding, and trim;
• fabricated plate work (boiler shops);
• sheet metal work;
• metal stamping;
• miscellaneous fabricated wire products;
• fabricated metal products;
• motor vehicle parts and accessories;
• manufactured furniture.
OSHA offices will begin the enforcement phase of the power-press program in late June or early July, says Greg Watchman, acting assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. In the meantime, OSHA encourages employers with power-press hazards to obtain information and make sure the risk is reduced. To help employers, the agency will provide copies of program directive CPL 2-1.24, "National Emphasis Program on Power Presses, 29 CFR 1910.217," along with a fact sheet on the hazards. For a free copy, contact OSHA Publications at (202) 219-4667.
OSHA notes that power presses are inherently dangerous because of the type of work performed with them. Power presses are powerful machines that punch out metal parts for automobiles, metal doors, and a variety of other products. Workers often insert, hold, and withdraw the pieces by hand as the power press cycles through the punching and resetting.
Safeguards are necessary to prevent hands, arms, or any other body part from making contact with the machine’s dangerous moving parts. Machine guards are a big part of a power press safety program, but OSHA stresses that employee training and proper maintenance also are important.
The physical safeguards take several forms. Some systems form a barrier that prevents inserting a hand into the danger zone while still allowing the product material to be inserted, sometimes by moving the barrier in synchronization with the machine’s operation. Others have detection systems that automatically stop the machine when a hand is inserted into a certain area.
Still other designs force the worker to use both hands on machine controls that are well outside the danger zone.
The high rate of serious injuries from metal stamping equipment causes special concern because of the severity of the injuries and the relative ease in preventing them, Watchman says. He tells Occupational Health Management that the injuries are almost always preventable, and the necessary guards have long been required and readily available.
OSHA estimates that 300,000 power presses are in use across the country. In addition to the human suffering and loss associated with amputations and other injuries, employers are paying between $5,500 and $47,000 in workers’ compensation and indirect costs for each injury. OSHA has alleged more than 2,650 violations of power press guarding and inspection requirements, and 80% of them were classified as serious, willful, or repeat.
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