[Occupational accidents among slaughterhouse workers. A review from a casualty department]

A total of 110 accidents in slaughterhouse workers treated in the casualty department of Sønderborg Hospital during a period of one year was analysed as regards the nature of the injury, the mechanism of injury, employment of prophylactic measures, employment and the loss of income in connection with the sick leave involved. Cuts and stab lesions caused by ordinary knives constituted 72.7% and 93.7% of these were situated on the hands and forearms. Employment of prophylactic measures was not identical in the various working processes. Thus, all of the persons employed with filleting employed prophylactic equipment. In this group, the majority of injuries were on knife-hand but there were also many injuries to the protected hand. In the remainder of the production, employment of prophylactic measures was much less and the injuries here were localized electively to the hand not holding the knife. It is concluded that employment of safety knives in filleting is capable of reducing the number of injuries to the knife-hand while increased employment of five-fingered metal-net gloves and arm protectors is recommended in the remainder of the production.