Document 3N7ndRQkxk2Z9jOokxXJR9XQy

such cases, it is especially important that the safety professional seek the advice and help of personnel within the company who are re sponsible for establishing engineering design criteria and for setting up job procedures The ultimate objective of all the company's engineering personnel is to design equipment and processes and to plan job procedures so that exposure to injury is eliminated or con trolled It is the safety professional's job to see that engineering personnel are acquainted with the particular hazards involved and the methods of eliminating them The safety professional should be able to discuss with management and the various supervisors involved the conditions respon sible for accidents or potential accidents He might well remember that, in making his cor rective suggestions, he will be more success ful if he can demonstrate that an injury is only one of many hindrances to efficient production The safety professional who has the neces sary knowledge and skills for preventing acci dents should be able to make recommendations for effective use of the facilities at hand for more efficient as well as safer production. Unsafe acts, unsafe conditions In most industrial accidents, both an unsafe condition and an unsafe act are contributing factors In almost 80,000 work injuries re ported in Pennsylvania in 1960, an unsafe condition was identified as a contributing factor m 98 4 percent of the nonfatal manu facturing cases * In the same study, an un safe act was identified as a contributing factor in 98 2 percent of the nonfatal manufacturing cases It must be remembered that an unsafe con dition, in addition to being a direct cause of accidents m itself, often can lead people to perform unsafe acts Many times, an unsafe act is the result of poor machine design, in adequately planned methods, and other en gineering deficiencies Thus, elimination of a hazard caused by an unsafe condition may also reduce the likelihood of injury from an un safe act When an injury occuis, the unsafe condition is often not as glaringly evident as the unsafe act Unless a careful study is made of the accident, the correctible physical hazard may escape notice Engineenng for safety, therefore, should have as objectives both the elimination of haz ardous conditions and the elimination of un safe acts Machine Design Machinery ranks fourth as a source of dis abling work injuries, accounting for about 10 percent of all such injuries Further pointing to the need for safe design of ma chines is the fact that they rank second as a source of permanent partial injuries, accord ing to NSC's Accident Facts The design of machinery and equipment is an evolutionary process It is always chang ing and dynamic, because design engineers constantly acquire wider experiences in the course of then everyday work These ex periences give them a broader scope and more initiative at the drawing board This initiative, however, will be disciplined by the practical consideration of designing the most effective means for controlling hazards m the operation of machines or equipment Basic considerations Evidently, the design of machinery must be further improved if the number of injuries caused by machines is to be reduced How hazards can be eliminated from machines in the planning stage is illustrated by much of the evolution m machine design that has thus far occurred (Fig 5-3) Behind this evolu tion has been the search for ever-increased efficiency and safety in machines of all types In repeated instances, innovations in design which improved efficiency also eliminated or lessened a hazard Conversely, measures taken to prevent accidents also improved pro duction efficiency Policy in designing or purchasing should make sure that a machine is so designed that it will meet the requirements promulgated un der authority of the OSHAct Adding guards to control exposure to injury after the machine has been installed is usually expensive and sec ond best "Pennsylvania Department of Labor and In dustry, Harrisburg, Pa Industrial Injuries tn Penn sylvania 1960 107