"crushed a finger in a workplace incident...."

One pleasantry that may go to the wayside because of COVID could be the common handshake. As Wikipedia states a handshake is a brief greeting or parting tradition in which two people grasp one of each other's like hands, in most cases accompanied by a brief up-and-down movement of the grasped hands. The editors of the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog have shaken thousands of hands on our travels across the globe. On occasion we have shook a hand that was missing a finger (or more). Sometimes a worker will come to us and show us their injuries and tell us what happened. Almost every time the worker either skipped a step or made an assumption. Here is a recent story emphasizing the hazard of hand safety.

(Company name omitted) has responded to the (aluminium smelter) workplace incident. ... Paramedics were called to (aluminium company) about 11am after reports a man in his 30s crushed a finger in a workplace incident. A (company name omitted) spokesperson said a (aluminium smelter) employee fractured their fingertip at the site.

We pray that the injured worker recovers fully from their injuries. Some might have read this incident and thought “a broke finger, how bad can that be”. We simply do not know the extent of the injuries.

The photo posted for this story is one of our hands. It may be hard to see but that hand is covered in scars. The most severe scar is on the pointer finger. In our youth as a foreign exchange student. We were splitting wood with a hatchet for our host’s kitchen stove. Unbeknownst to us the wood had a knot in it. One swing the blade of the hatchet hit the knot and deflected. Into our finger, stopping at the bone. As we were staying on a large farm in rural area with no hospitals. My hosts called the local veterinarian and he stitched up the wound. Over the decades the scar has faded but it’s still there. Nearly cut the finger off because we skipped a step. We were lucky, not everyone is. We simply do not want anyone to be injured in a  workplace incident.

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