FACTS
- Research shows that risk of injury is twice as high using “contact” trigger nail guns compared to “sequential” trigger nail guns.
- Electric powered nail guns are light in weight. However, they are not as powerful as the pneumatic or the combustion powered nail guns in their firing.
- Using a nail gun with a bump or automatic trigger (also known as contact trip trigger) can result in unintended nail discharge.
- Other risks include lack of training, working fast and keeping the trigger squeezed when not nailing. Using a nail gun with a single shot or full sequential trigger reduces the risk of injury.
- Most injuries from nail guns are caused by the user accidentally striking the gun’s muzzle into a part of the body while holding the tool’s trigger switch.
- There is a risk of nails penetrating the body:
- by direct contact with the muzzle of a loaded gun
- by deflection, when skewing off a hard surface
- through soft or thin material.
STATS
- Nail guns are responsible for an estimated 37,000 emergency room visits across the United States every year.
- About 66 percent of nail gun injuries occur in framing and sheathing work in residential construction.
- A study of apprentice carpenters found that about 40 percent of them were injured on one occasion while using a nail gun during their four years of training.
- More than half of reported nail gun injuries involve the hands or the fingers.
- One-quarter of hand injuries involve structural damage to the tendons, joints, nerves and bones.
- After hands, the next parts of a worker’s body most likely to be injured in a nail gun-related incident are the leg, knee, thigh, foot and toes.
- Injuries have resulted in paralysis, blindness, brain damage, bone fractures and death.