Causes of workplace accidents

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Occupational accidents can occur due to human or mechanical causes, with the majority of cases being of human origin.

On many occasions, workplace accidents due to mechanical causes occur due to improper assembly of the machinery, or due to a factory defect, therefore, basically, the culprit of the accident is the person who performs the assembly or the one who makes a mistake in the production chain, so almost all accidents are due to human causes.

Causes of workplace accidents

The International Labor Organization recognizes 4 major groups of causes of accidents:

Official Master in Prevention

Unsafe act

It is the violation of a procedure that is considered safe, that is, it is the negligence of a person that produces the main factor of insecurity.

Examples:

Distract or annoy other people who are doing their job.

Carry out maintenance work with the machine running.

Carry out operations without being authorized.

Do not use safety equipment.

Adopt dangerous postures or positions.

Not working at the proper speed.

Using unsafe equipment.

construction nets

Unsafe condition

It is that condition that is part of the object that has been directly linked to the accident and that could have been protected or avoided.

Examples:

Environmental conditions that pose a certain risk.

Inadequate or defective protections.

Defective ventilation of workplaces.

Lack of protections.

Inadequate lighting in work centers.

Poorly conceived or constructed facilities.

Defective tools or equipment.

Personal causes

They are internal causes of the worker himself and cause a large part of the accidents.

Examples:

Unsafe habits

Physical defects.

Lack of knowledge of work.

Environment

Like personal causes, they are internal causes to the worker, but these are motivated by the social environment where people live, work and develop.

Examples:

Health problems.

Social and economic problems.

These 4 factors in the background are intertwined with each other.

How a work accident happens

A worker is worried about family problems (environment), and this makes him pay less attention to the handling of the crane (personal causes). He knocks down a column of badly placed boxes (unsafe condition) that fall striking a colleague (accident), causing a fracture in the neck (injury).

Thus, if we had avoided some of the causes of accidents, the rest probably would not have occurred, since as we have seen they are intertwined with each other.

Regarding the environment and personal causes, the preventive work is quite limited, the only thing that can be done is to educate the workers through adequate training in Occupational Risk Prevention.

On the other hand, in dangerous acts and conditions, greater control can be established, adequately training workers on the risks inherent in their work, acquiring machines with adequate protection, etc.

Taking these into account, now we have to act to make work a safe place.