Printing industry

Printing industry – For a long time it was believed that, with the introduction of computers, e-books and smartphones, the days of printed information would be numbered. Reality is different. Activities in printing houses have gone up like they have never been witnessed before. Unfortunately; so has the number of incidents.

The Paper and Printing industry, as it is commonly called, is still a big player in the South African economy. The industry covers a wide variety of companies who are involved in a large scope of activities and includes companies that produce paper from pulp to companies that print on paper or any other material.

This industry often makes use of huge machinery and heavy items or equipment to achieve productivity. Employees employed in this industry can, therefore, be subjected to a wide variety of accidents and incidents. Health and safety officials appointed to ensure the safety and security of those on side are faced with a wide variety of possible incidents that can take place or injuries employees can get.

I am happy to see from recent Makrosafe statistics that, the Paper and Print industry is not amongst those that can be classified as 'dangerous industries' based on the number of incidents reported. The type of injuries that have been reported, don't indicate that the industry should address a particular issue.

By the same token, this means that health and safety officials in this industry should stand on the tip of their toes at all times and become constantly alert for possible danger. This can be exhausting and frustrating as one doesn't know what will come next.

To give you some pointers; finger, foot and hand injuries were amongst those that reported more incidents. That doesn't make the Print and Paper industry different from industries like Iron and Steel or Trade and Commerce, to mention but a few.

The industry differs a bit with the age category of those involved in incidents. Accidents and incidents reported mainly involved people in the late thirties up until late fifties. This either indicates that the older labour force is more at risk in companies or the average age at the work floor is pretty high.

What also makes this industry different, according to our statistics, is that most incidents were reported on Monday while most other industries reported cases of more incidents in the later days of the week.

The fact that most incidents were reported at night, between 6pm and 6am, also makes this industry to differ from other industries but is typical of the printing and paper industry as most work is done overnight to allow the economy to increase during the day.

In this day and age where modern technology has taken over, we still can't do without printed versions and especially information printed on paper. In fact, this industry is more important than ever as people tend to prefer bank notes over Bitcoins and Valentines cards in the mailbox over random SMS messages.