Accidents and injuries are the downside of doing it yourself: inglorious, but not to be denied. Who knows about the small and big dangers, lives a whole lot safer.
The red signal light in the brain flickered on fractions of a second too late. The arrowhead splinters of a bathroom tile had already pierced the skin. A hair's breadth past the eye. The pain was bad, the anger at yourself even worse. There she was, the voice of the salesman in the hardware store: “Be sure to use a chisel with a hand guard. And when working at eye level, for heaven’s sake, never forget your safety goggles.”
Good advice – spoken to the wind. 180 000 Times a year, according to the accident statistics. The Association of Insurers estimates the number of home improvement accidents to be far more than 200 000. According to a study by the Munich institute Infratest-Wirtschaftsforschung, every seven seconds a minor or major catastrophe occurs in the home. Every tenth is accounted for by hobby gardeners and do-it-yourselfers.
The men between the ages of 25 and 44 years are the frontrunners according to statistics. Closely followed by women between 45 and 64 Years 67 percent of all cases are due to haste and clumsiness. 45 Percent on lack of concentration and lack of caution. Bare Numbers, behind which the whole drama of everyday life is hidden: ignorance, impatience and stubbornness.
"No problem, I can handle that. I can now sing this sentence along", says a salesman at a large hardware store chain. The situation is always the same: The customer paws his hooves impatiently. The weekend is short, and he wants to get to the chainsaw, the drill, the sandblaster. He likes to ignore hints and explanations. In the best case, he nods apparently understandingly. His thoughts have long been on his patio tiles, the carpet or the wall breakthrough for the conservatory.
Almost ten million power tools went over the counter last year alone, bought or borrowed. “The trend is going towards large devices with a vengeance”, a salesman at Obi knows. To hammer drills, high-pressure pistols and the notorious circular saws.
They are the main cause of accidents. The Department for Plastic and Hand Surgery of the professional accident clinic in Ludwigshafen registered in the short period of only three
Years, von 1991 to 1993, an increase of around 60 percent of serious injuries caused solely by the use of circular saws, namely in the hobby area. In the case of commercial use, the increase was less.
“And then the device flies in their face…“
This is where the problem lies. For professionals, craftsmen, for example, Accident prevention and occupational safety courses are mandatory. There are safety officers for the companies organized in a trade association. Lay people get nothing. How well they are advised, is at the discretion and ability of the sales staff.
In the new federal states in particular, hardware stores and rental companies are springing up like mushrooms. Shaken up by alarming press reports, all operators affirm unanimously,
that they do not borrow machines and equipment without advice. Theoretically. The practice is often different: Hardware stores are jam-packed on the weekends, Consultants overwhelmed by the rush. They refer to the enclosed instructions for use and to the necessary protective devices. And rely on the insight and diligence of their customers.
“The new machines comply with fussy safety regulations, the instructions for use have become more understandable and consumer-friendly”, says a customer advisor from Bosch. Against the explosive mixture of missing routine, frivolity, Overconfidence and impatience unfortunately doesn't help much. “Sometimes it only takes ten minutes,
to familiarize yourself step by step with the instructions for use", knows the boss of a company– t , ma for machine rental. "But if it says so: Fill in oil first, then switch on, people still tune in immediately and complain bitterly, that the device flies in their face."
When the do-it-yourselfer happily reaches into his tool box at the weekend, the doctors in the surgical emergency departments are prepared for the worst.
The scale of injuries ranges from bruises, Sprains and broken arms, electric shocks and eye injuries to severed fingertips and dismembered limbs.
After their first aid and comforting encouragement, they agree – often in shock – a well-known lament: "I wish I had…“ That applies to a 28-year-old from Elmshorn, who had problems with his paint spray gun. She didn't want and didn't want to spray the green grass on the fence slats anymore. As a test, he pointed it at his hand. Squeezed again and again. Finally she went. She dyed her left arm green from fingers to elbow. And destroyed him to the tendons.
A 41-year-old do-it-yourselfer from Erlangen first worked loudly with the drill and then drew attention to himself with a sudden silence. His shirt got caught in the machine while drilling holes in a piece of timber. It coiled itself up to the neck in the manner of a rope and strangled its victim.
"He looked like a Maori on the warpath"
A small and inconspicuous tool behaves in a similarly malicious manner: the carpet knife. Used correctly, it leaves clean cut edges on the carpeting. Otherwise, it wreaks bloody carnage on the extremities. examples: A hand holds the carpet (in cutting direction!) fest, and – zack, zack - the fingertips are gone. If the knife remains unnoticed on the carpeting and is walked barefoot over it to protect it, it likes to dig into the balls of its feet. And something else: Carpet knives are out of the question for cutting chipboard. The risk of slipping and the resulting pain are far greater than the effort, get a useful tool.
Even without tools, there can be late viewing. Just like the free-hand hovering hobby gardener from Quickborn. He had balanced between heaven and earth while sawing off branches on a ladder that was much too short.