Rising Accident Rate In Printing Industry

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30555, 25 September 1964, Page 21

Rising Accident Rate In Printing Industry

While total machinery accidents fell by 7.1 per cent in the 1958-62 period, machinery accidents in the printing and publishing industry increased, said the chief inspector of factories of the Department of Labour (Mr J. C. Corbishley) of Wellington, at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Master Printers’ Association.

Machinery accidents, he said, comprised 42 per cent of all accidents in the printing trades. But in the total number of industrial, accidents, machinery accidents comprised only 15 per cent. “This is due to some ex-

tent to the large amount of machinery used in the printing industry," he said. “But you will see there is a problem that will have to be seriously tackled.” ( Mr Corbishley said that a more active and vigorous programme of machine guarding, coupled with education of workers in the industry, could bring about a reduction of machinery accidents.

Of industry in general, Mr Corbishley said that in spite of more and more dependence on machines and a fairly rapidly increasing labour force, the number of machinery accidents had been declining steadily. This could be attributed to employers guarding their machines. In effect there had been a 15 per cent improvement.

“This is specially worth while, when we consider that injuries inflicted by machinery are usually more serious,” he said: Officers of the Canterbury Master Printers’ Association elected were: president, Mr B. C. Bascand; vice-presidents, Messrs A. F. Weir, H. C. Blazey, and H. B. Emms; treasurer, Mr E. C. Andrews; executive, Messrs L. F. Fulford, N. D. P. Turner, G. S. Boanas, D. E. Purse and H. F. Hutchings.