Health and Safety Executive

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Main causes of injury in the surface engineering industry

  • Manual handling – e.g. through lifting/carrying heavy and/or awkward objects and account for 1/3 of all 3-day injuries.
  • Struck by – e.g. falling objects; moving vehicles
  • Slips and trips - e.g. on uneven floors or due to poor housekeeping; failure to promptly clear up spillages
  • Contact with a harmful substance (which has also caused the greatest number of fatalities over the period)
  • Falls from height – eg from ladder, elevated walkways.
  • Contact with moving machinery - e.g. movement of jig transporters

Over the past 6 years these causes have accounted for over 85% of all reported injuries.

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Updated: 2011-09-19