Food manufacture - Milk processing and cheese manufacture

Injury rate comparisons

Injury incidence rates (ie injuries per 100,000 workers per year) averaged for the three years 2005/06-2007/08 are as follows:

Manual handling and lifting - especially heavy loads or sharp edges
Slips - mostly due to wet floors
Being struck by objects - mostly falling objects, sometimes hand tools
Exposure to harmful substances - cleaning fluids, fume, splashes, CIP failures, steam, hot water
Falls from height - off ladders, stairs, tanks and from vehicles/tankers
Transport - including tanker movements and lift trucks
Machinery - lifting machines, conveyors, packaging machines

Musculoskeletal injury from manual handling wheeled racks, containers etc
Work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs), eg from repetitive packing work
Noise induced hearing loss from noisy plant, eg homogenisers, bottling lines, blast chillers, pneumatics
Respiratory irritation from breathing fumes such as chlorine, hypochlorite and ammonia from cleaning operations and refrigeration plant.