Electrical Injury in Construction Workers: A Special Focus on Injury with Electrical Power

Safety, health and environment 1
Safety health and environment
Electrical injury in construction workers: a
special focus on injury with electrical power

Safety, health and environment 2
Contents
Review of published paper....................................................................................................................3
Literature Review..................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of Qualitative and Quantitative data.......................................................................................3
Alternative research strategies..............................................................................................................4
Descriptive research strategy:...........................................................................................................4
Applied research strategy:.................................................................................................................4
Predictive research strategy:.............................................................................................................4
Exploratory research strategy:...........................................................................................................4
Initial research ideas..............................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................5

Safety, health and environment 3
Review of published paper
A journal paper with title name “Injuries among electric power industry workers, 1995-2013” was chosen.
This paper was published in “Journal of Safety Research”, volume 60 in 2016. This is the peer reviewed
journal which comes under Elsevier. The paper was written by Vitaly Volberga, Tiffani Fordycec, Megan
Leonhardb, Gabor Mezeic, Ximena Vergarad and Lovely Krishene. All of them are academic researcher
from United States. The paper is attached in the appendix.
According to the paper electric power industry has very unpredictable work environment. The workers
which are working there are in great danger. The work they do there is very risky and demanding. In this
paper analysis of the risks and safety measures were done on the basis of various surveys. The authors
divided the injuries caused in the past on the basis of age, sex, occupational group and injury type. For this
they chose the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) Occupational Health and Safety Database
(OHSD). In these database injuries, medical claims and personnel data was recorded from 18 different
countries. This data was from 1995 to 2013. In the result it was found that the injury rate was 3.20 injuries
per 100 employees in a year and it was decreasing by the year. It was 1.31 injuries per 100 employees in
the year 2013. It was found that according to the occupation, welders, meter readers and line workers
were most prone to injuries. Male workers were recorded with more injuries but in case of meter readers
women were more injured. Injury rate was higher among the workers of age group between 21 to 30
years. In case of welders and machinist workers who were older (65+), were more with injuries. In the end
it was suggested that targeted safety measures need to be taken based on the study. This can prevent
many fatalities and injuries for electric industry workers.
Literature Review
It is the research, observation and analysis of the work done in the area which we have chosen. It analyse
the literature available in the given topic. The main purpose of writing a literature review is to present the
literature in an organised way. It does not contain any new idea or original work. It tells us about the
previous and present research of our topic and what were their limitations.
It is very important to write literature review in the research because it tells us that about the research
that has already been done in the area which we have chosen for research. It also let the reader know
that the author has read the previous and present topics related to his research. A literature review saves
time by letting the author not to research on the same topic again.
There are many risks and injuries while working in an electrical company. They can produce serious
problems like cardiac arrhythmia, hypoxia, cardiopulmonary arrest and renal failure (Cooper and Price,
2002). If a person had an accident with electricity it can cause both psychological and neurological effects
which in turn can affect their life in a serious manner (Noble et al., 2006). The exposure to alternating
current is more dangerous as compared to direct current (Cooper, 1995). The exit wounds which are
caused by the current when it leaves the body are small of direct current as compared to alternating
current (Salehi et al.,2013). Young workers are more prone to injuries specially workers between the age
of 16 to 19 years (Janicak, 2008). In a research survey done by Lombardi and co-authors in 2009, it was
claimed that non-fatal injuries were 98.8% of the total cases of injuries. Another factor is that once the

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worker is injured there are very less chances for them to return back to work (Wesner and Hickie, 2013;
Theman et al., 2008; Stergiou-Kita et al., 2014).
Analysis of Qualitative and Quantitative data
As the name itself suggest, the data which gives information about the quantity is called quantitative data
and the data which gives information about the quality of the data is called qualitative data. The
information that can be measured in the form of numbers falls into the category of quantitative data, for
example, number of electric companies, injuries caused to the workers in present year, etc. It deals with
the data which is generally in the form of how much and how many.
Qualitative data covers the quality of the information. In simpler terms, the data which cannot be
measured is called qualitative data. Examples of qualitative data are what type of injuries happens to
electric workers, what kind of workers are more prone to the injuries, etc. As it is seen from the examples
the data which is generally in the form of type of or kind of comes in the category of qualitative data.
According to the journal paper used in this report analysis were done for both qualitative and quantitative
data. Injuries calculated per year are the quantitative analysis of the data. They were analysed using
Poisson distribution, where upper and lower limits were analysed using Fleiss method. Analysis of injuries
based up on the occupational group was done qualitatively. For this, mechanism of injury and which body
part was affected with injury were analysed. Generally, qualitative analysis is non-statistical process and it
is required when in-depth knowledge of topic is provided, whereas, in case of quantitative analysis
statistical methods and tabulation method are used (Bryman, 2006).
Alternative research strategies
Apart from qualitative and quantitative research strategies can be of different types (Openlearn, 2018).
Some of them are discussed here:
Descriptive research strategy:
This strategy is used when giving the description of a situation. While describing the relation between the
growth of a plant with the amount of sunlight and water this strategy can be used.
Applied research strategy:
It is used by a company or government to find a solution of a problem, for example a research to find out
that what is the best scheme to motivate physically handicapped children.
Predictive research strategy:
It is used to predict that what will happen in the future. This is generally used by the companies to predict
the sale of their new product at special time and at the end of year.
Exploratory research strategy:
If a company is launching a new product into the market, they will need an idea, finance and a team to
learn about the market. In this case this type of research will be best suited.