Hand protection

Overview

What makes us humans unique is that we can bring our thumbs all the way across our hands to our ring and little fingers. We can also flex the ring and little fingers toward the base of our thumb. This gives us a powerful grip and excellent dexterity to accomplish everything from manipulating tools to playing a musical instrument. But our hands are delicate appendages with a sheath of easily-punctured skin covering 27 bones, 29 joints, and at least 123 ligaments that can be broken, bruised, and overworked.

The key to hand protection is a job hazard assessment that tells workers what tasks in their jobs could cause a hand injury and how they can prevent the injury from happening.