Working to
Prevent Injuries and Save Lives in Road Construction
BOTTOM-LINE BENEFIT IN
ROAD CONSTRUCTION:
Hand Protection
Road
constructors pay out $48 million more for hand injuries each
year than it would cost them to equip all of their hazard-exposed
workers with protective gloves. That is the bottom line for road
construction companies, according to figures compiled from the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), National Safety Council
(NSC), American Road and Transportation Builders Association
(ARTBA) and International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA).
How so? Start with 574,000 hazard-exposed
road construction workers in the private sector (ARTBA). Apply
a 64% usage rate for protective gloves when needed among road
construction workers (ISEA 2001 survey), meaning that 36% (206,640
workers) are not using protective gloves when they need them.
Multiply that number of workers by the cost each year to equip
each of those workers with 10 pairs of gloves at $4 a pair ($40),
yielding a total cost of $8.3 million to equip with gloves all
remaining road construction workers.
Now multiply the total number
of annual lost-time hand injuries in road construction, which
is about 2,020 (based on conservative extrapolation from BLS
data) by the $28,000 cost per on-the-job injury (NSC), yielding
a total cost for hand injuries in road construction of $56.6
million. Subtract the $8.3 million cost of equipping all unprotected
workers from that figure to derive the $48.3 million more that
road construction companies pay out each year for hand injuries.
"Wearing abrasion- and laceration-resistant gloves will not protect against every potential hand injury, and we are not saying that it would," said ISEA President Dan Shipp. "But this data does suggest that road construction companies are spending a whole lot more to cover the costs of hand injuries each year than they would pay to equip their workers properly and make sure they are wearing their gloves when they need them." For details on the statistical basis of this cost-benefit profile, contact ISEA's Joe Walker, 703-525-1695 or jwalker@safetyequipment.org.
INTERNATIONAL SAFETY EQUIPMENT
ASSOCIATION
703-525-1695
fax 703-528-2148
1901 North Moore Street
Arlington, Virginia 22209-1762
USA