Several professions have a set of related hazards with them. Of course, it is the same with carpentry as well. There is a variety of hazards in carpentry, that the carpenters face. In brief, noise hazards, cuts, bruises, and cancer (caused by wood dust) are some of them. However, these hazards of carpentry could be minimized if anyone is following safety precautions when in their work environment and when using home tools as well as carpentry tools. Still, some of you might not exactly know what these hazards are how to prevent them. If so, let us guarantee you that you are in the right place. Continue reading, and you will simply get to know all about them.
Most common hazards in carpentry
As mentioned earlier, there are many and more types of hazards in carpentry. Below are some of the most common hazard types in this filed.
- Wood dust
- Noise
- Vibration
- Machine hazards
Wondering how they cause hazards? Of course, we are sure you are! Nothing to worry about! Have a look at the below sections for a better overview.
1. Hazards caused by Wood dust
When talking about the health effects of wood dust, it may happen due to short term exposure or due to long term exposure. In short-term wood dust exposure, workers get skin and eye irritation, blistering, asthma, itching, redness, nasal dryness, frequent headaches, and scaling. Moreover, in long-term exposure, prolonged colds, coughing, nasal cancer, dermatitis reactions, wheezing, asthma signs, and indications connected with chronic bronchitis, and fever can be seen. Another health impact is the sensitization of the skin and respiratory system to wood dust. This may cause an allergic reaction after frequent exposure or exposure to lesser concentrations. According to OSHA, wood dust falls into the nuisance dust category. The maximum exposure level in that category is 15 mg/m3.
How to protect workers from the hazards cause by wood dust in carpentry?
Indeed, as these hazards are very harmful, employers should be able to provide employee medical evaluations. These medical evaluations should carry in three sections. The first section is a pre-placement medical evaluation. Before hiring a worker for the job, a licensed healthcare professional should examine the worker to evaluate the baseline health status.
The second section is the periodic medical evaluations. During employment, employers should do regular health interviews and physical examinations to identify the health effects and then provide precautionary measures. The third section is the termination of a medical evaluation. When a worker is retiring or transferring to another job site, they need to repeat and evaluate the physical examination, history interviews, and tests to know about the worker’s medical status.
Employers should protect the workers from wood dust using engineering controls. Some examples of engineering controls are establishing ventilation systems and dust collectors. Regulatory authorities will continually evaluate those control systems and give feedback. Based on the extent of the potential exposure employers should provide appropriate PPE to the workers to prevent the wood dust exposure
Carpenters and other workers sometimes get the wood dust in their skin. So, they need to wash the affected areas with soap and water. Especially, before eating, taking medicines, and applying cosmetics they must thoroughly wash their hands, faces, and forearms using soap and water. And they should avoid engaging the above tasks in an area where wood dust is handled or processed.
2. Hazards caused by Noise
Two significant factors need to combine to make noise hazardous. They are intensity and duration. Higher noise level and more prolonged the exposure has a more substantial potential for hearing loss. The risk of hearing weakening is cumulative over the working duration.
There are three primary controlling methods to reduce noise levels. They are source controls, path controls, and using hearing protection. Source controls give the most effective security as it is reducing the quantity of noise generated. To do that, a thorough analysis of each sound-producing equipment should be conducted in order to identify all the noise sources. Thereafter possible engineering controls should be applied to reduce those noise levels. The next step is to put adequate path controls. They are isolating, diverting, reducing, blocking, or absorbing. This needs to be conducted before the noise intensity reaches the worker’s ears. This means controlling the path of sound goes directly to the employees.
The third stage is providing hearing protection devices. Hearing protection devices help to separate the ear from damaging noises. Workers need to wear them as it is the final stage of defense to control noise hazards. Using hearing protection is effective and inexpensive when considering the other stages.
3. Hazards caused by Vibration
Several effects can originate from the wave. Vibration can occur from both hand-held and stationary tools, which causes hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) and “white fingers.” White finger syndrome is a disease that the blood vessels in the fingers collapse due to constant exposure to vibration. Moreover, HAVS is an excellent condition in this. HAVS affects the entire hand or arm due to vibration. In brief, you can identify HAVS early if you have an infrequent feeling of numbness and tingling in the hands, fingers, or arms. Also, advanced HAVS can affect you by disabling you for a long time.
When it comes to the engineering control part, there are two effective ways for vibration control. In brief, they are the use of vibration isolators on the machinery and use damping techniques. Further, to reduce vibrations, the next method is work practice control. Work practice controls include things such as machine maintenance and worker technique.
4. Hazards caused by Machines
The most common hazard type occurs when doing carpentry work is machinery hazards. Injuries may happen accidentally at the point of operation when the workers’ hands get too close to the sharp parts of the machines. Machine blades could cause severe injuries to the operator’s hands if they stuck in a knife. Moreover, machine hazards can happen when using essential home tools as well. If there is no proper maintenance and repair, these things may happen. The injuries that may happen when people work with machines could be slight or even deadly. So maintaining these machines and repairing them properly is a task that must be done regularly.
Types of machine hazards in carpentry
Machines are heavily involved in carpentry. Hence, it is obvious that there are a lot of hazards related to these machineries in carpentry. However, it is important that you are aware of these hazards, especially if you are a person who is involved in carpentry. Below are some of the carpentry machines that can easily cause hazards in this filed.
- Rotating parts
- Carpentry tools
- Kickback
- Electrical hazards
- Fire and explosion
- Maintenance hazards
Need to know more about them? Keep reading and get to know!
1. Rotating parts
Rotating parts of the machine are very hazardous irrespective of the size, speed, or surface of the moving parts. These moving parts can catch and draw the hair or clothing of the carpenter. Hence, injuries like scratching, breaking a bone, or splitting a limb. The danger to these accidents will increase with bolts, screws, projecting keys, or rotating parts in a machine. When a working machine starts to brake suddenly, planning locks or keys can injure the carpenters.
Rotating parts are dangerous for spinning parts. These accidents can occur whenever machine fragments move in the direction of each other or when one part moves past a stationary object. Body parts can be drawn into the nip point and be distorted, crushed, or severed.
2. Carpentry tools
Carpentry tools have rotating cutter heads with blades. They can be poorly adjusted, and mounted, or even have cracked edges. Balance is a critical factor in order to keep the blades safely to a speedily moving cutter head. These unbalanced cutter heads can throw the blades away from the tool and brutally or seriously wound the people nearby. People who work with these machines have to make sure that these rotating cutter heads with blades are well fixed before working with them. To control or minimize these mechanical hazards, the best way is to using engineering control or work practice controls. Then consider providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). As this is a very serious issue employer should use all possible engineering and work practice controls to eliminate hazards beforehand using PPE
3. Kickback
Kickback happens because of the stock rotates and binds in contrast to the cutting edge. An unsharpened blade or poor-quality timber can cause kickback.
4. Electrical hazards in carpentry
Sparks generated by equipment such as switches, motor starters, and contractors may be ignited in a hazardous location or an atmosphere. Also, electrical hazards happen due to high temperatures of heat-producing equipments, like lamps and lighting fixtures. Explosions may occur due to electrical equipment failures.
Grounding all the electrically driven machines is the way to eliminate electrical hazards as they have the motor casing, motor, and frame. Another way is to label all circuit breakers and fuse boxes by indicating the purpose. The next thing is to cover all the unused holes in electric boxes. Maintenance and repairs have to be carried out for plugs, electrical cords, and cables. outlets, junction boxes, and fittings, and switches should be covered at such times. Finally, all types of machinery should have a lockout/Tag-out system for the main power disconnect
5. Fire and explosion
As carpentry places have large quantities of sawdust, wood, and combustible chemicals such as adhesives, paints, solvents, and oil finish, the risk of fires and explosions is higher. Sawdust tends to ignite and burn far quickly than timber. Fine wood dust can accumulate on beams and get fired easily.
6. Maintenance Hazards
Carpenters are required to perform various periodical maintenance tasks in order to keep the carpentry tools and equipment working fine and safe. In such instances, falls from heights, fall of heavy equipment parts, and cuts can very easily happen. Thus, it is important to be careful and pay attention when carrying on these maintenance tasks.
What are the best safety precautions to avoid carpentry hazards?
Most of the injuries and health hazards related to carpentry tools and essential home tools happen because of the recklessness of the workers. Most of the workers are unaware of the safety precautions that must be taken in their work environment, and that has become another reason for the accidents and health hazards that happen when they are at work. Hence, it is important to focus on enlightening the carpenters about such matters, through world carpentry events and other small scale events organized relatively to the carpentry job market.
Some of the most important safety measures that must be followed in the carpentry field are listed below.
- Always Wear Safety Equipment.
- Wear The Right Clothes.
- Avoid Using Anything That Can Impair Your Reaction Time and Judgment
- Disconnect Power.
- Avoid wearing jewelry
- Use one cord
- Never Use Blunt Blades & Bits
- Don’t use drugs or alcohol
- Use sharp blades and bits
- Check wood for nails
- Work against the cutter
- Never reach over a running blade
- Minimize distractions
- Ask for help when you need it
- Never work when you’re tired
Exactly, knowing them just like that won’t be enough for sure. Let’s get to know about these precautions in detail.
1. Always Wear Safety Equipment.
Since working as a carpenter has health and safety risks, workers need to wear safety glasses and equipment before starting the work as it is the first line of defense. In standard carpentry, PPE should include safety eyewear. There are two types of eyewear as safety glasses with side shields or a full-face mask. This eyewear should meet OSHA standards. PPE kit should also include hearing and breathing guards. Ear guard range varies from earplugs to earmuffs. The face mask you are using should be a disposable dust mask as cutting wood may cause toxic dust.
This might sound sort of a sense quite rule, but it’s a crucial one to recollect. During usage of loud power tools like routers and surface planers, wearing ear protection may be a noted advantage. Similarly, wear latex gloves while applying finishes. NEVER BE WITHOUT YOUR SAFETY GLASSES. These should be the primary thing you reach for when entering the carpentry shop.
2. Wear the right clothes
The problem with wearing baggy or loose clothes is that they have a very high chance of getting caught into a cutting head or saw blade. Thus, it is important to always attempt to wear clothes that simply match the woodworking environment, and protects you. Also always make sure that any dangling jewelry or metal like chains or bracelets are removed before commencing work.
Proper clothing is part of the personal protection gear. As loose clothes tend to get ripped and tangled in moving equipment, safe garments should be worn. Full-length pants and long-sleeved shirts are more reliable cloths. Wearing suitable gloves and appropriate footwear are also a part of the safety kit.
3. Avoid using anything which will impair your response time and Judgment
It’s like when you’re driving a car: you would like to remain out of the alcohol and drug cabinets to avoid accidents. Within the wood shop, the risks are even higher by inadvertently using the incorrect tool because you’re too out of it to ascertain what you’re doing wrong. NEVER mix alcohol with work, albeit it’s just a beer…or ten.
4. Disconnect Power
Always remember to disconnect the facility source itself before changing blades or bits on your power tools. Additionally to making sure the switch is off, confirm there’s no electricity being powered to the tool, since the switch can malfunction and/or accidentally get turned on.
Whenever servicing on any power tool or equipment piece, either unplug the tool’s primary power cord or shut off the breaker. Although the power switch is off, it can energize, and machine parts may tend to rotate. Another way to be extra careful is to lock out the power.
5. Avoid wearing jewelry
Hanging chains or pendants are vulnerable to get caught in rotating blades or revolving belts. After entering the construction site, carpenters should remove their particular piece of jewelry and keep them protected before engaging in work.
6. Use one cord
Using one heavy duty cord for all of your power tools will make sure that you turn off the facility for every tool. Too many cords can get confusing and be a tripping hazard.
If you are using power tools threaded together with multiple extension cords, they may suffer a current drop and also a safety hazard with a jumble of intertwined wires. Standard practice for using power tools is always to use a single extension cord. When using this single power cord, it should have enough cord to supply ample current at a distance. This will be very healthy for power tools.
7. Never Use Blunt Blades & Bits
While this might sound obvious seeing as how dangerous a dull cutter are often. Dull tools will get to be made to figure harder to chop and as a result can bind or sit back. Sharp bits and blades will ensure cleaner cuts also.
8. Don’t use drugs or alcohol
Drinking alcohol on or before doing carpentry work is not suitable. Drinking makes people lose their judgments and decisions to carry out the project. If the decision is dangerous, it could create serious injuries. Vulnerability is consuming drugs like marijuana as they tend to alter the state of mind. Whatever the drug or alcohol, it is very harmful to use them while doing such a risky job.
9. Use sharp blades and bits
Sharp blades are safer than using damaged, dull, and worn-out blades. They give a clean-cut with no time and have lesser kickbacks. Sharp drill bits won’t jam and bind as the dull bits. Hence, proper maintaining of blades by sharpening using a professional may reduce the problem.
10. Check wood for nails
Most of the people like their product to be in reclaimed wood as it gives an antique look. But, these used woods most of the time contain pins that were used previously. Hence it may be dangerous to the carpenter and also for the tools. Therefore, they need to make sure to check lumber for nails or other fasteners. For that, mostly, you need to carry visual inspections to catch embedded nails. Another more natural way to get rid of nails is to use a metal detector.
11. Work against the cutter
The best tip for working with a cutter is to work against the cutter. It comes from practice. Most of the experienced carpenters are aware of working against the cutter. The reason for this is it’s safer to feed wood against a fixed blade, without forcing it onto the work surface. This working against the cutter lessens the accidental kickback.
12. Never reach over a running blade
In carpentry working place, there are some dangerous things people need to avoid. One of them is reaching over a moving blade. There are risks of slipping and engaging on the blade. This may cause severe and fatal injuries to the carpenter. Without being over panicking, taking the time to reach the table around a running blade may save you from harm.
13. Minimize distractions
If you can’t concentrate on your work and if you get distracted all the time, it may severely affect your work. Interruptions take the eyes and mind off from the job you are doing and set them elsewhere. That may be a vulnerable situation to the hands and fingers which are exposed to tools. Nowadays, the most distracting thing is the telephone. Hence, to avoid dangerous situations, you need to minimize distractions.
14. Ask for help when you need it
Another best tip for new carpenters is to ask for help when you can’t do the work alone. If you have to work with a bulk wood piece, you need help as it is unsafe to try to lift by yourself alone. Otherwise, it may be beyond physical limitations, and you may get injured.
15. Never work when you’re tired
Tiredness restricts your consideration span and powers of opinion. Fatigue and sleepiness weaken the judgments you make. And then slow your thought procedures. Therefore, if you are feeling tired, you need to stop working, rest, and freshened up before working again.
What are the most dangerous tools that cause hazards ?
Carpentry is clearly a hard job on one’s body. And, it is a profession that uses a large number of tools. Thus, tools play a major role when considering the hazards in carpentry. Carpentry needs a lot of manual labor and therefore injuries related to fingers, wrists, and arms are very common. However, most of the injuries that happen in carpentry could be minimized by using safety gloves. In comparison to most of the other construction jobs, carpentry has a very low fatal injury rate. Therefore it is very rare to see fatalities in carpentry. Even the minor injuries could be minimized or controlled by following safety precautions mentioned above in this article. There are some carpentry tools that are famous as very dangerous among the carpenters. The following list shows those tools.
- Table-saw
- Band-saw
- Circular-saw
- Nail-guns
- Chainsaws
Wondering how hazardous they are? Continue reading, to get to know!
1. Table-Saw
There appears to be a robust consensus that the table saw stands proud at the amount one top spot for many dangerous machines. Why? The table saw has the power to chop finer strips than anything out there. It’s all well and good wearing your safety gloves but the very fact of the matter is you’ve got to place your hands pretty damn on the brink of its sharp 10-inch rotating blade. Once you are employing a table saw there’s some serious precision involved. You wouldn’t be the primary person within the world to urge distracted and not to realize just how close your fingertips are becoming. This may injure your hand seriously.
2. Band-Saw
In brief, the band saw is commonly used for cutting irregular shapes and predominantly used in woodwork, metalwork, and lumbering. Further, this device contains an extended sharp blade with toothed metal stretched between 2 or three wheels. They’re used tons within the meat manufacturing industry where the band saw injuries aren’t uncommon.
One slight slip of a hand and you’ll certainly be in some serious trouble. Southern Meats OH&S, a meat manufacturing company in New South Wales invested within the new technology Blade Stop. The Blade stop Band Saw is a smart piece of technology that stops the band saw blade within 15 milliseconds of human contact. It’s a huge breakthrough within the machine industry because it acknowledges human flesh and knows to not cut.
3. Circular-Saw
You can see a touch of a topic emerging, right? The word “saw” is shooting up quite a bit! The buzz saw has a good faster blade than the previously mentioned table saw! Spinning at around 193 mph, it’s not hard to imagine what an influence, a tool like this will do. Further, a study in Australia’s Hazard Magazine found that of all reported saw, injuries, circular saws are on the top. So, it is clear that the hazards that a circular saw bring can never be ignored.
4. Nail-Guns
Of course, this is a common machine within the modern-day household. Whether you’re within the housing industry or simply a keen handyman fancying a touch of DIY around the house, the nail gun is important. Used incorrectly, and it might be drilling tons quite a couple of nails. Further, in 2013, it had been reported that the quantity of Nail Gun Injuries are literally on the increase.
Indeed, that’s reasonably hefty for a commonly used tool. Therefore, nowadays, construction workers choose nail guns as their go-to tool over the normal hammer. It’s specifically Contact Trip Actuation nail guns that are proving to be the foremost dangerous. They’re susceptible to unintentional firing, and when the gun can fire 133mm steel projectiles, you don’t want to be within the firing line.
5. Chainsaws
Chainsaw kicks backs can cause some serious loss of control. It’s vital that you’re conversant in chainsaw safety basics before you begin handling your new machine. In June 2016, a 68-year old man in Victoria luckily survived after accidentally cutting his face open with a chainsaw when he was cutting wood. He had not noticed an outsized trunk behind the tiny branch he was cutting. The chainsaw kicked back and sliced his face.
After all, even the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics website proves that there are many kinds of injuries and hazards in carpentry. Moreover, there are even several incidents where carpenters faced extremely dangerous wounds and injuries while working these carpentry tools. Still, good awareness about controlling and using these tools will be the best way to minimize these injuries. Thus, it is always better to take safety measures first, to enjoy this profession at its best!
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