Abstract
Currently, government statistics inficate that sanitation workers suffer a high number of job related injuries/illnesses each year. Considering the inability to control hazard exposure in this job in terms of type, severity and duration, this is not too surprising. What is alarming is that the rates have remained stable, indicating that nothing has been done to curtai their numbers. One reason for the difficulty seems to stem from a lack of ergonomie information being yielded by many accident reporting/analysis systems. They ignore the time ordering and factors that led to an incident and focus only on demographic variables, thereby making it a static event. The present effort involved a scenario analysis (Drury & Brill, 1983) of approximately 300 solid waste collector First Reports of Illness of Injury complied over a five year period in Galveston, TX. The accident cases were coded for computer entry and subsequent analysis using the Texas Research & Analysis of Sanitation Hazards (TRASH) system, a devise similar to one developed by Laughery et al (1983) to discern common patterns of accidents. The analysis provided five unique accident scenarios, which account for approximately 80% of the cases. The scenarios were as follows:
Poor ergonomie arrangement of the truck crib area led to body strain during loading, mounting and dismounting. Containers failed, exposing collectors to the hazards of their contents. Excessive container weight or awkward load shape led to body strain and unintended contact. Poor footing led to slips, trips, and falls. Lack of personal protective devices led to unwarranted hazard exposure.
Each scenario lent itself well to accident intervention strategy development in terms of equipment redesign and adaptation as well as managerial and public policy formation.
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