Abstract :
Workplace accident has a devastating and long term effect on the lives of people who are affected. Globally, workplace accidents are estimated at 317 million annually and 6300 workers die daily of occupational diseases and accidents. This study determines the characteristic of workplace injuries, accident frequency rate (AFR), accident severity rate (ASR) and leading causes across six ferroalloy industries in Bhutan. From the total numbers of 1366 workers, a sample size of 300 was considered and distributed proportionately among the companies and the departments within the companies. Information was gathered through face-to-face interview, observation, and secondary data maintained by each company. This study found that the workplace injury rate was 200 (20%) per 1000 workers, with over all AFR 62.45 and ASR 583.20 per million hours of work annually among the six ferroalloy industries. Out of 561 lost working days, 516 days were lost due to major injury with AFR 11.45 and ASR 540.20 per million hours work annually. This study found that AFR alone cannot be used as an exclusive indicator for predicting the occurrence of severe events at workplace. Contact with object and equipment (44.2%), fall from height (20.9%) and contact with the hot substance (26.7%) were three main leading causes of workplace accidents among ferroalloy industries. Comparing between the survey data and accident record maintained by each company, though it showed a similar nature, the frequency was found to be higher in survey data.
Keyword :
Workplace injury, Accident frequency rate, Accident severity rate, Ferroalloy industry