FACTORY ACCIDENTS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4905, 20 November 1925, Page 3

FACTORY ACCIDENTS.

NEW ZEALAND 1924 STATISTICS.

TIME LOST THROUGH INCAPACITY

As a result of an international conference of official statisticians at Geneva in 1923—under the of the International Labour Office, set up by the League of Nations —the collection and compilation of statistics of nidustrial accidents is now 1 being undertaken in virtually all countries, and figures are available in New Zealand in connection with the accidents which occurred during 1924 in factories (says the “Lyttelton Times’’). During 1924 there were in New Zealand 1977 cases of “factory accidents,” injuries not likely to incapacitate the injured person for at least forty-eight hours being excluded. These cases comprised nine deaths, eighty cases, of permanent partial disability for life, and 1890 cases of temporary disablement. There was no case of permanent total disability. The total period of incapacity in all these cases of temporary disability was 34,275 days, an average of over nineteen days per accident. The frequency of accidents per 100,000 man-hours worked, that is, per tbtal hours worked, counting one hour worked by one man as one unit, was 1.03 for all industries combined. It was .highest in the meat freezing industry, the figure being 11.7. The next highest were: paper manufacturing 2.5, joinery 2.4, general engineering 1.6, foundry working 1.4, soap and starch manufacture, chemical and manure works, and biscuit and confectionery works 1.3 each, woollen mills 1.2, sawmills 1.1. The jewellery and clothing trades were free from accidents, while other lowfrequency rates were recorded in electric lighting 0.07, butter and cheese manufacture 0.15, and baking 0.18. Mere frequency rates are, however, an ■ unsatisfactory measure of. industrial hazards. In the electric lighting indutsry accidents are few, but such as they are usually prove fatal ; in freezing works-, on the other hand, there are many accidents, but few 1 are serious. Therefore severity rates were worked out, .time lost as the result of the accident being taken as a criterion of severity. >ln the case of death the time lost is deemed to be the victim’s future expectation of working life. .The total toll of accidents so computed wats r 249,048 days, an average of 120' days per accident. The electric-lighting industry came first with 954’5 days per accident, followed by retail' butchering (1603), and brewing and aerated water manufacture (1010). The lowest figure was in soap and starch manufacture (11). Of 1979 factory accidents during 1924 only 499 (just over a quarter) were due to machinery, as many as 64' per cent, of which seem to, be due to starting, operating, or stopping machinery.

As many as ninety-five accidents were due to falling objects, which were not being handled by the person Injured. Seventy were due to poisonous, hot, and corrosive substances, forty-nine to the vagaries o.f animals, forty-three to striking against fixed objects. Of the remaining number, the remarkable total of 121, including one fatality, were due .to sprains, strains, and septic .wbunds gained in the course of slaughtering operations. Cuts and lacerations comprised the bulk of the injuries suffered, 754 out of 1979, or 38 per cent, of ,the total. Of tlie total, eighty-six occurred to fem ales.

One of the most interesting results of the investigation was .the incidence of machinery accidents in respect of time of occurrence. Accidents, due to adjust'ng machines, tool, or work, rose from three during the hours of 8 and 9 a.m. to eleven during the hour immediately preceding noon. Aftbr the mid-day luncheon spell the number again rose from three between 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock to nine from 4 to 5 p.m. As regards accidentsjdue to starting and operating of machines, the maximum number, both morning and afternoon, occurs during the last hour but one of the normal working half-day. There vrould appear to be a definite casual relation between the frequency of such accidents and the degrpe of the worker's fatigue, which is further borne out by an analysis of the days of the feek on which 1 machinery accidents occurred during 1924: Monday, 19 per cent. ; Tuesday, 13 per cent.; Wednesday, 17 per cent.; Thursday, 21 per cent.; Friday, 20 per cent.; Saturday, 10 per cent. Few hours are worked by most factories on Saturdays, and during 1924 an exceptionally large number of public holidays fell on a Friday. The high figure on. Mondays may be ascribed to slackness after the week-end spell.