Preventing Hand Injuries in Utility Work

Hello, and welcome to Vimocity's ongoing series of live events. Today, we're talking about preventing hand injuries in the utility workforce.

And hand injuries are one of the most common injuries that occur on the job. According to OSHA and BLS statistics, over a million workers annually are treated in the emergency room due to hand injuries, and over a hundred and ten of thousand of those are, actually lead to lost time cases.

As I was preparing for this, one of the things that really stood out to me is that I found a few different, resources that did research on, the percentage of people who are wearing gloves when they actually performed, or were injured in that event. And about seventy to eighty percent of people who suffer a hand injury on the job are not wearing gloves.

And then of those people who are wearing gloves, about thirty percent of them are actually wearing gloves that are not fit for the type of work that they're doing. And those, you know, consequences end up leading to cuts, lacerations, or puncture type wounds. And so I'm really excited today to, have a few experts in the industry talking about their experience with preventing hand injuries in the workforce.

My name is doctor Kevin Rindal. I'm your host today. I'm the CEO and cofounder of Vimocity.

And as I mentioned, this is an ongoing series of topics that we're covering related to the concept of workforce readiness. And my background's in sports medicine. And when we're talking about athletes, we talk oftentimes about being physically and then mentally prepared to perform. But in the job and in the workplace, being physically and mentally prepared for that job is also critically important.

So in this series, we've covered things like slip, trip, and fall prevention, heat safety, avoiding high energy injuries. And so we're really excited to explore this topic of hand injuries and hand safety. Today, we have two special guests today, Max Hackett from Youngstown gloves and coach Steve Lechfold from Sturgeon Electric California. So, I'm gonna turn it over to Max and Steve to to share a little bit more about their experience working in the industry, especially as it relates to hand injuries.

So, Max, how about we start with you?

Yeah. Sure. Hi. My name is Max Hackett. I'm with Youngstown Glove Company. I'm the VP of sales and marketing.

And, at Youngstown Glove, for the better part of twenty years, we have been developing, work gloves, for electric utility workers and constantly trying to meet the demands of of that industry, improving protection, maintaining comfort, and we've worked with a lot of utilities over the years to develop products to meet their specific needs. So we've worked in the USA and, Canada, and we have a lot of great utility customers, and, hand protections are our whole thing.

Thank you. Coach Steve, let's turn it over to you for a intro.

Roger. Yeah. I'm, Steve Lekhold, journeyman lineman and trades trainer, also rodeo coach for Sturgeon Electric California.

I've been in this position for coming three years.

Prior to that, I worked for thirty eight years with the utility.

And I'm proud to say, you know, being forty one years in the trade, I've never cut myself. So that's where I'm at.

That's impressive.

Thank you. We're so, looking forward to being able to glean some of both of your knowledge. Max, I'm gonna start with you. You know, you're kinda at the tip of the spear when it comes to interacting with, folks in safety and operations and hearing from them, you know, after the fact what, what is leading to hand injuries. And, so tell us a little bit more about what you're hearing in the industry, not only in terms of, the types of incidents that are happening, but what, folks are really wanting when it comes to, hand protection resources.

Well, the the dream that everyone wants is to have zero incidents ever, but that's that's can be hard to achieve.

You know, when we first started selling into the utility market, cut resistance really wasn't top of mind. But over the years, we've seen more and more of our customers alter their hand protection program to mandate different levels of cut resistance to protect their workers as they've experienced more lacerations.

And so certainly from a safety perspective, I I would say lacerations are top of mind.

It is most of the time due to knife work and splicing wires.

But we do see all kinds of things, right? We have customers in cold climates and they need cut protection, but also protection from extreme freezing weather. And so all over the the country, really, while the laceration is there, you have to build them a little bit differently because some are gonna need more breathability in the hot weather and some are gonna need warmth in the cold weather. And the ultimate goal is they have to be comfortable and dexterous or guys won't wear them. And so you know, lacerations is is sort of top of mind, and that's what and and cut resistance. And so that's really I would say that's the broad stroke most common thing that we're hearing in the industry.

Which probably is why seventy, eighty per cent of the people who experience the cut laceration or puncture wound are not wearing gloves because they don't have some of those things in, inherently built into them. Right. And so it makes it uncomfortable to wear. Thank you thank you for that. Steve, you've been in the trades for thirty eight years. I mean, you were, on the front lines doing the work. And so we'd love to hear a little bit more about what what type of hand injuries you've seen over the course of your career and, again, some of the reasons why, some of these patterns emerge.

Yeah. I'd agree with you that, the big problem is not wearing your PPE, not wearing your gloves. So, typically, it starts with that.

And then as far as being successful handling a knife, you know, it starts with being what we call cut in and focus.

Typically it's a guy that's, doing something that's pretty repetitive, his mind somewhere else and then not wearing his PPE and then something bad happens.

So, it's just, it's so important. Again, in our line, no matter what we're doing typically when it comes to the trade and dealing with heights, energized wires, and all that, that we are cutting and focused on what we're doing all the time.

Great. Thank you, Steve. And just a quick follow-up question to that as well. Like, what are some of the the other maybe even from a policy standpoint, things that you've seen that have helped, reduce the number of, hand injuries or cuts such as potentially using, like, a plastic knife to open up boxes versus using a pocket knife or, not using a pocket knife and instead using a stripping tool if you're stripping wire. Any any, insight there?

Yeah. Exactly. Because of hand injuries, I really believe the industry's been really proactive on developing tools that take the knife out of alignment's hands. So it's, there's nearly now a tool for everything to to eliminate the knife. So it's just a matter of utilizing the tools when they're available and not taking shortcuts.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Max, back to you. What are some of the attributes of a glove that, you know, maybe a tool committee is evaluating different resources for, for their employees? What are some of the attributes of a glove that they should keep in mind? And then what are some of the keys to getting frontline buy in for the gloves that are ultimately selected?

Well, attributes, you know, we we went to we go to the International Lineman Rodeo every year, and we did a big, survey a few years ago and sort of listening what's most important to the linemen in the work gloves.

And comfort was number one by far, followed by dexterity and fit.

And protection was, you know, about fourth or fifth. But we know that the safety officers, have a level of protection that they're gonna require. And so our job is to sort of create a glove that meets the safety specs, but is the most comfortable and dexterous as possible. And so we do that with, you know, our material selection and the patterns that we use. You know, Youngstown does a glove pattern that's more like a golf glove or a batting glove. So you can have really nice dexterity.

You know, the cut resistant ones are lined with Kevlar, which is inherently flame resistant and cut resistant. And so we believe we're producing a a a glove that gives the worker the comfort and dexterity they need, while while getting the protection that they need also.

And and certainly, the the way we encourage for buy in is wear trials.

A huge percentage of our budget, our marketing budget goes to funding wear trials. You know, I can I can meet with the powers that be and tell them how great our glove is, but, you know, it comes down to the guys in the field? And so, you know, we've been fortunate over the years to do a lot of wear trials, and we can go up against other brands or sometimes it's a variety of our product. And we feel very good that that that guy in the field is gonna choose Youngstown because of the comfort and the fit.

And so wear trials, I just, I really endorse that with with any tool or new equipment or new thing. I mean, if you can get buy in from the guys in the field, I mean, that's what you want. And then it's much easier to implement versus a safety officer say safety officer saying, this is your new thing, and they have no input. You know?

That's a lot harder to implement, I think.

For sure.

Thank you for that, Max. And then, Steve, I'd love it if you could share a little bit more, in preparation for this conversation. You talked about, like, in nineteen eighty eighty four, like, Lyman didn't even receive gloves, you know, from the company. And so Yeah. Can you kinda walk us through the whole evolution of what hand safety and glove safety has looked like over the course of your career? And then now how are you guiding the people on your cruise to to make good decisions when it comes to finding something that works for them?

Yeah. Sure. Nineteen eighty four, the company didn't provide gloves, so we had to buy our own. And we basically just go through a tool purchase. Well, these gloves that would come in the mail, first thing they do when you're sweating real bad, they turn your hands orange.

And they're so thin, you're lucky if they lasted a week. So I find myself taping up holes in my gloves rather than buying new ones. And, and then as soon, I don't know what year it was. It could have been three years into it. They started providing gloves, and and all of a sudden, the quality of the glove just went up, you know, two hundred percent. Really good gloves, but not comparable to what we have today with Youngstown.

I do wanna say, there's one glove in particular, Max, that you guys have that I wore in a sleet, a wet sleet snowstorm that, cut resistant, FR rated, lined with a liner and waterproof.

And I worked this whole storm with that one pair of gloves, never got my hands wet and stayed warm the whole time. Where prior to that, it was when those gloves got so saturated, you'd have to throw them down and send for a new pair of gloves. So no, I'm really a fan of that glove.

Oh, thank you.

Appreciate it. Guys have work a lot in wet weather and cold. Appreciate it also. Sure.

And then the second part was leadership.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. The, I just think it's really important to, coach and mentor our apprentices. Don't assume that they have I've learned how to work with the knife. So have that discussion and and some training, on the, crew side of it, you know, in our tail board.

I think, our frontline leaders are are forming need to, just stay involved, make sure that we're we're testing our rubber gloves daily. If going into use, we're talking about knife safety and giving little reminders on how to keep us safe, making sure everybody I'm a big, advocate of body language. When when I'm around my crew and my family and I know them so well, sometimes just body language will tell me if a guy's not right that day. So pick up on that, have a discussion because there might be something going on that you might wanna keep him out of the out of the thick of the work that day.

Yeah. No. Thank you so much. And, Steve, let's maybe continue this conversation. So what are some actual practical tips or things that training departments can do to teach people about technique, especially when it comes to working with tools to prevent these type of injuries from happening in the first place. And maybe the differences between, you know, like, if you're working in a substation or working above ground versus below ground. Love to hear a little bit more on that.

Yeah. You know, the, underground work tends to be, a little more, technical with a lot of measurements, a lot of different stripping tools, a lot of, of, a lot of opportunities that lead you to want to take your gloves off.

So again, we have to make sure that if we're start tarting to pull our knife out, if there is a stripping tool available for that application to go ahead and think to call for that tool or have it readily handable because available. Because if you don't have it right there, chances are you're gonna go forward with your knife rather than call for someone to go, you know, chase it down.

So, and and then, you know, and then at that next train of thought, if you are in a situation where you you don't have proper body position and you can't get it and you have to cut cut towards your body, like I said earlier, focus and having the back of your mind that if you're, you're pulling hard and that knife slips that you have to have that ability to stop it before, you know, do everything you can to keep yourself out of the bite, but then have that in your mind and be focused On the overhead is it could be little things, little things like when we send something up that safe ended with, with tape that we make sure we leave a tail on that tape end.

So the alignment doesn't have to take this glove off to get to the tape, to unwind it. Because sometimes when the gloves come off, they don't go back on. So there's lots of little things, when we when we, send something up with with rope to pick something up, we put a quick release knot in it. So all the alignment has to do is, like, pull on it like you would your shoestrings to release it.

Anything that that helps alignment not have to take his gloves off.

Yeah. That's really insightful that, you know, creating a work environment that encourages people to continue to to have that glove usage. And, Max, going back to the opening statistics that I talked about, the thirty percent of folks who were injured, or suffered a hand injury, who were wearing gloves, the key factor is that they're wearing the wrong type of glove for the work that they're doing, and so it wasn't even meant to protect them in in that type of role. What are some of the things that, again, you're hearing from training and safety folks out there in terms of adjusting what gloves you or hand protection you might be wearing given the type of work, because work is constantly evolving and different tasks are constantly happening. So how do people make sure that they're wearing the right glove for the job? But then, Steve, to your point, they have them readily available? Because if it's not right there, you're just gonna probably compromise.

Yeah. Sure.

You know, we one of the one of the things we always ask when we get to have the opportunity to talk to talk with a new utility is what are their current hand protection rules, and then we present the product that that fits that rule. But one thing we've seen over time is as cut resistant gloves have become more common, right, you it it is true that you lose a little bit of dexterity when you move into a cut resistant glove, and so then there can be some pushback from the field. One kind of mix, approach we've seen at some utilities is they have to be in a cut resistant glove only when they're using a knife.

They can use sort of their preferred glove, for most of their tasks.

And then when the knife comes out, they're getting into their cut resistant glove. So some utilities have that approach, whereas other utilities have the approach of you don't even get that other glove. It's just cut resistant gloves all the time so that I know no matter what, you're protected.

And it's hard for me to say, you know, which is the best practice there. I think one I don't wanna call it a trap, but one thing we see that can be a challenge for utilities over time is that maybe they started out with a cut level two. Now that let me back up. The the cut standard is from now from a one to a nine.

Most common we see are two to four in our industry.

But a company will start out at an a two, and then, unfortunately, a laceration happens and they say, well, okay. Stop everything. Let's go to a three. And then, you know, a lacerations can happen and they say, wait a minute.

Stop everything. Let's go to an a four. And it kinda gets into this this cycle because I think that that, you know, there are random things that happen, you know. In talking with the utilities, we spoke with a gentleman that fell off a ladder and he planted his hand on a broken insulator.

And, obviously, it was a horrific injury, but there's no PPE that can prevent that kind of thing.

And so there's there's some nuance to it all as well. Right?

But in the broad stroke, we want the best protection that we can have that will be worn and used so guys are protected, you know, as best as possible for the longest amount of time.

That's great. Thank you, Max. Steve, one one additional question just related to hand safety that goes beyond, the gloves.

How do the tools impact the, you know, potential, injuries? So thinking about even just maintaining your your tool's sharpness so that you get a clean-cut when you're when you're doing a job.

Yeah. So I carry a knife all the time now, and it's really critical for me that that knife is sharp.

So they just sell a little SpeedySharp tool that I keep in my pocket all the time.

And, my typical pot my, knife I keep in my pocket is good for about two cuts, and then I gotta pull that speedy sharp out and keep that blade sharp. So, that's been a really, good tool for me because in the old days, we'd have to go to the stone, you know, to a oil and a stone to sharpen our knives. That was all that was available to us. So, yeah. This this little tool is a is a very it's doesn't cost hardly anything, and I'd encourage every lineman to have one in his pocket.

Thank you. And forty one years without a hand injury, so that that's that's good.

Yeah.

Alright, Max. Well, gloves can be expensive and, you know, but you also then start to look at the return on investment. And if a hundred and ten thousand lost time injuries happen each year due to cuts, lacerations, and punctures of the hand, and just hand injuries in general, the injury can be way more than a good set of gloves. So what are some of the attributes of a glove that people should look for when they're making a purchasing decision, and how should they think about, you know, cost that factors into that, again, when it goes to the quality of a glove, especially from a protection standpoint?

Well, when you're looking at, when you're looking at cut resistant gloves, I do think a very important thing to be mindful of is three hundred and sixty degrees of cut resistance. There can be gloves in the market, and and we sell some too, where there's greater cut protection on the top of hand than there, or greater cut protection on the palm than there is on the top of hand and vice versa. And so, you wanna look for three hundred and sixty degree cut protection. There are, you know, others in the market, we don't make them, where you might have cut resistant only on the palm and nothing on the top of hand.

And they're you know, the end user is under the impression they're in a cut resistant glove. And but it's like, wait. Wait. Not all of it is cut resistant. So, you know, that that's certainly something I think to be to be mindful of.

And then, you know, you get what you pay for. Right? The way Youngstown builds a glove, it is actually a much more expensive way to build a product. But it is because of the way we build it, it is more comfortable and more dexterous, so guys will wear it. The palm side tends to be double layered and reinforced.

So we will, in most cases, last twice as long as the other guys. So while your unit cost is higher, your total spend may not be that much higher because we have that durability.

But also, it goes back to wearing the gloves. Right? Like, it is a the way we make them, it is more expensive, but it is also more comfortable and more dexterous, so guys will wear them.

Some of the inexpensive models, can be be very clunky, and guys don't like to wear them, and then they're taking them off, And you're worse off than you were.

So, yeah, hopefully, that that answers your question. I don't I don't know. Yeah.

I know. That's great. Appreciate that. And, Steve, anything that you'd like to add just to to close out in terms of, like, what attributes should people look for in a glove? And, again, you were a frontline employee. You wore these gloves, and so you know what attributes you prefer that caused you to continue to wear your gloves, throughout your curve?

I think, I'm certain that the utility I worked for prior to leaving, they had went to all their gloves who are who are created and cut resistant. So you didn't have that that thought that you had to switch gloves if you brought your knife out. I think it's kinda unrealistic.

Anyone that is using that policy that a guy's gonna change not the gloves when when the knife comes out, I'd hope they do, but, probably not. So, you know, I I, I'm an advocate for, you know, just all of them being being arc rated and, cut resistant.

Other than that, you know, like I said, I've had I've had a a lot of success. I've seen bad injuries.

I've seen guys let their guard down, and, I mean, I saw a guy in my first year that, like I said, we didn't even have knives. He pulled his knife out to cut a piece of cotton line that, we would typically use our pliers for, and he's he's cutting. I wasn't there when it happened, but he cut straight towards not only his body, but his face. And he put the knife through his lip, through his upper lip. So it was pretty horrific injury.

But then again, it was just, no training, no thought process, no concentration, and concentration, and not being focused in that case, you know. And so we just gotta make sure we're staying on top of all that. Not not assuming. Little details are important. Don't assume that they have had training. And I know it's gonna cause me and my role as a trainer now to on the in processing of new employees, actually ask a question and and and bring it up to find out where they are on knife safety and how they sharpen their knives and little things like that, and then reinforce PPE.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much, Steve. I wanna ask one final question as we close things out. Steve, how what are some of the techniques that you found to get buy in from frontline employees to ensure that they do wear their gloves and that they follow the procedures that you're teaching them in terms of, like, how to handle cutting situations, safely?

Yeah. I just I really believe that our frontline leaders, our foreman, need to be, have the ability to confront and have the ability to lead and and have to be comfortable and demanding that certain things have to be done, you know, to for the safety. And obviously, our goal is to have everybody go home the same way they came to work and go home safely.

So, again, just leadership being your brother's keeper.

And when you see something, say something. So, you know, typically, there's a there's a poll partner or someone on on on on the structure with you that needs to be able to say, hey. Hey. You know, put your rubber gloves on. Put your gloves on.

Do this. Do that. You know? So we gotta we gotta we gotta, make each other accountable.

Awesome. Well, hey. Thank you so much, Steve, Max, for your time. I know that we're all leaving this conversation much better and better equipped, to lead our teams and to share information of how we can help people avoid these injuries. These can, really impact people's quality of life, and, you know, they are avoidable injuries if if we do the right thing. So thank you so much for, for today.

We have your contact information up here, and thank you for also being willing to, put your email addresses up there. And I'm sure if if folks do have questions, you'd be happy to respond to them and, answer some of those questions. This recording is gonna be available after, the fax. So if if, you know other people who are not able to make this live, we will put out, the recording so that you can feel free to distribute that.

And, again, this is just an ongoing series. We we try to do these pretty much on a monthly basis. The next month, we are gonna focus on, mental health in the trades and building mental resilience. We have, some experts in or an expert in the field, and so we're really excited to continue that.

So once again, coach Steve and Max, thank you for your time. Thank you to each one of you who have joined this, and you can look forward to seeing, an email from us afterwards with some additional resources.

Thanks again, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

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