In todays paper 1-6-05 there was an article on snowblower hand injuries !!!
The American Society for Surgery of the Hand recommends that individuals take proper precautions to prevent hand-related injuries while removing snow this winter. In the early 70's American National Standards Institute (ANSI) passed regulations to require manufacturers to install a deadman control or kill switch. How ever old snowblowers didn't have a deadmans control nor an m-wire (what is m-wire, still youngster at 51 ha ha).
According to Consumer Product Safety Commission(CPSC) 2/3's of snowblower injuries involve fingers. Snowblower misuse is a leading cause of finger amputations !!!!!! In a 1999 study 3,546 injuries were snowblower injuries, of those about 3,000 involved hands and fingers INCLUDING 283 finger amputations!!!! On WTB forum it looked like we had just about 1,600 members, that study in 1999 would equate to every member getting his or her fingers in a snowblower accident TWICE !!!!
I know that some of you posters and guest readers know some-one, or heard of some-one that this has happened to.
We all need to apply the safe approach to snowblowing.
SOOOOOOO!!!! PLEASE !!! PLEASE !!! REMEMBER ALL THE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS OFYOUR SNOWBLOWER !!!!!!!!!
Visit www.handcare.org
Put it where the Big iron wheel runs!!!
