By the Numbers – Materials Handling

DID YOU KNOW?

Material handling is the most frequent cause of workplace injuries, according to a new report from The Travelers Companies, Inc in 2016. The company’s Injury Impact Report identifies the most common causes of workplace accidents and injuries, compiled by analyzing more than 1.5 million workers compensation claims filed between 2010 and 2014 from a variety of business sizes and industries.

The most frequent causes of workplace injuries included:

Material handling (32 percent of total claims)

• Slips, trips and falls (16 percent)
• Being struck by or colliding with an object (10 percent)
• Accidents involving tools (7 percent)
• Traumas occurring over time, for example when a part of the body is injured by overuse or strain (4 percent)

The above incidents most often resulted in strains, sprains, cuts, punctures, contusions, inflammation, fractures, or chronic sicknesses resulting from a type of work (e.g., a skin disease caused by chemical exposure). On average, strains and sprains resulted in 57 missed work days, followed by cuts and punctures at 24 days. Of the most commonly-resulting injuries, inflammation and fractures caused the most time away from work at 91 and 78 days, respectively.

INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC FINDINGS

Analysis of the workers compensation claim data revealed that certain causes of accidents and resulting injuries were more prevalent in some industries than others:

• While material handling accidents were the top cause of injuries overall, these were especially common in the manufacturing and retail industries, causing nearly 40 percent of injuries in both sectors.

Falling from height was among the top causes of injuries in both the construction and…