Question

A chemical plant employing 850 employees (employees work a regular 40-hour work week) has the following safety and health records for the year 2016:

(a) File 1 Forklift truck drops pallet load of packaged raw material; no injuries; some material wasted; pallet destroyed; extensive cleanup required.

(b) File 2 Worker suffers heat cramps (illness) from continuous exposure to hot process; admitted to hospital for treatment: 2 weeks off.

(c) File 3 Worker burns hand on steam pipe; first aid received and worker returns to workstation.

(d) File 4 Worker suffers dermatitis from repeated contact with solvent; 1 week of work lost; another 4 weeks of work restricted to an assembly job.

(e) File 5 Worker fractures finger in packaging machine; worker sent to hospital for treatment; back on the job the next day.

(f) File 6 Maintenance worker lacerates hand when screwdriver slips; five sutures given; worker back on the job the next day.

(g) File 7 Pressure vessel explodes; extensive damage to processing area; miraculously, no one is injured.

(h) File 8 Worker gets poison ivy from exposure a week earlier while removing weeds around the plant perimeter fence; worker receives doctor’s treatment, but no workdays are lost.

(i) File 9 Worker becomes ill from continuous exposure to hydrogen sulfide leaks from furnace area; misses 2 weeks’ work; leaks are repaired.

(j) File 10 Worker gets severe poison ivy from weekend outing with Boy Scout troop; misses 2 days of work.

(k) File 11 Maintenance worker falls from fractionating tower and is killed.

(l) File 12 Worker fractures an arm in transmission system that powers pulverizer mill; loses 3 days of work and an additional 6 weeks of work is in the production scheduling office before returning to regular job. 2

(a) Fill this data into an OSHA 300 log and complete totals column

(b) Calculate the following incidence rates: 1. LWDI 2. Total injury incidence rate 3. Total illness incidence rate 4. Fatality incidence rate 5. Number-of-lost-workdays rate (injuries and illnesses) 6. Specific-hazard incidence rate (fractures)

(c) Based on National Safety Council statistics for injury facts, how does the safety and health record of this firm compare with that of other manufacturing companies and with industries in general? If no data are available for year 2016, use data for year 2007 for comparison. (Text book on Page 25)

Answer 1

LWDI stands for Lost Workday Incidence Rates = LWD (number of injuries/illness resulting in lost workdays) *200,000/ EH where EH stands for the total number of hours worked by all the employees.
As per data LWD = 6 (file numbered 2,4,9,10,11,12) and there are 850 employees, therefore
LWDI = 6*200000 / (850*2000) = 3/4
Total injury incidence rate = N (number of recordable injury) / EH ) * 200,000
In the given question N= 6 (Files 2,3,5,6,10,12), therefore injury incidence rate = (6/850*2000) * 200000 = 3/4
Similarly, in the case of illness N= 3 (Files 4,8,9), therefore illness incidence rate = 3/9 = 1/3
Number of Fatality reported as 1, therefore Fatality incidence rate =( 1 * 200000) / (850*2000) = 1/9
Number of lost workdays = 2weeks (File2) + 1week & additional 4weeks (File4) + 2weeks (File9) +2days (File10) + 3days & additional 6weeks (File12) = 80 days, therefore rate is 80/9
The specific-hazard incidence rate for fractures = 2/9 as File5 and File 12 states fractures.