FACTS
- Health And Environmental Hazards of a Foundry
- Heat
- Hazardous substances and dangerous goods
- Gases, vapors, dust, and fumes
- Noise and vibration
- Molten metal
- Risks In Foundry:
- explosion and burns from molten metal and other hot materials
- respiratory effects from expose to gases, vapors, fumes and dusts
- skin effects from contact with corrosive or sensitive chemicals
- eye damage from light radiation, metal fragments, dusts and chemical splashes
- heat stress, heat stroke and fatigue from hot working conditions
- slips, trips and falls
- joint, muscle sprains and strains
- physical injuries from machinery and equipment e.g. by entanglement or crushing
- health effects from machinery and equipment e.g. caused by vibration and noise.
STATS
- Based on an estimated total of 3250 person-years at risk for the workforce at the foundry, the six fatalities correspond to a mortality rate of approximately 185 per 100,000 workers per year. In contrast, the fatal injury for the most hazardous U.S. industry, mining, is estimated to be 30.1 per 100,000 workers per year.
- Each day, about 270 workers are injured in iron and steel foundries. This is about 70,000 each year, of which about 70 die from fatal injuries—more than twice the rate of workers in other manufacturing industries.
- The Bureau of Labor reports the foundry industry had a 6.4 percent rate of injury every 100 workers in 2020.
- According to a report published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2019, the incidence rate of nonfatal injuries is 6.4 for every one-hundred full-time foundry workers; in this cohort, the incidence rate is 9.7% in steel foundries—the highest for metal casting foundries.
- Injuries and accidents cause in the foundry industry. The total volume of disabling injuries reported was 25,363, of which 92 resulted in death, 30 resulted in permanent total disabilities which will prevent the injured persons from ever again engaging in any normal occupation, 680 caused permanent physical impairments, and 24,561 resulted in temporary disabilities involving an average time loss of 15 days each.