Safety courses in rubber industry

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 13

Safety courses in rubber industry

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

I A total of 1712 employees; 1 1(0” injuries; 16,000 working hours lost; $270,500 initial cost estimate; and $146,000 in levy- to the Accident, Compensation Commission.

These figures apply to the Canterbury rubber industry in 1976-77.

To reduce the injury rate and costs, the Canterbury Rubber Industry Safety Committee has introduced safety courses in all plants. (Mr G. Sharp, a safety advisor with the A.C.C., helped prepare the half-day programme. The programme was used to introduce the courses to supervisors, ' charge hands, i and union representatives. Five plants were represented — Firestone (which already has a safety training programme), Dunlop, Marathon, Empire, and Rotacure.

There were four segments to the programme. The first was to make everyone aware of tfae accident problem within the industry, besides the far-reaching effects on the injured person, their family, and the industry itself. Other subjects dealt with, were manual handling, the role of the occupational health nurse, and accident causes.

Of the 1007 persons who suffered injuries, 259 had to: go off work for treatment.! The 1007 represented five

I lost-time injuries every (working day. i The most frequent types (of accident were fingers amputated, feet injured, hands crushed, and backs hurt. The

total number of hours lost for the year was about 16,000. The initial cost to

the industry as a result bi these injuries was $270,500 and, to that, material and equipment damage arid material loss had to be added. These statistics motivated some discussion among the group, of the dangerous areas known in their plants. Manual lifting of materials and products was an integral part of work in all plants, and improved methods of manual lifting were demonstrated and practised. Sister E. Muirhead, who works at the rubber industry’s health clinic, discussed the role of the oc-

cupational health nurse. Most had thoughts that the health nurse was employed to cope with industrial accidents only, but Sister Muirhead said this was not so. The occupational health nurse also dealt with attempted suicides and socioeconomic problems. All such situations could trigger an industrial accident, she said.

>i Occupational health nurses (.often dealt with problems .(before they became a haz- : ard. The men were asked to

let nurses at the clinic know if any of their staff had a health problem. It was important to know when people suffering from diabetes, alcoholism or drug addiction were employed, Sister Muirhead said. . Unsafe working conditions, inattention, and beating the clock, were given as the main reasons for the injuries. But Mr Sharp said that if the accident potential of individuals could be lowered, their injuries could possibly be eliminated. Attitudes, home conditions, personal habits, tiredness, lack of experience, boredom, lack, of knowledge, lack of training, and incapacity' all caused accidents, said Mr Sharp.