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Number of Work/Study-Related Injuries
A total of 38 work/study-related injury cases were recorded in 2014. Among the cases:
- 19 cases involved staff members
- 13 cases involved students
- 6 cases involved contractors
A comparison of accident numbers over the past 10 years is shown in Table 1 below.
| Table 1. Comparison of Staff & Student Work/Study-Related Accident Numbers |
| Year |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
| Staff Accident Number |
35 |
25 |
18 |
22 |
27 |
35 |
19 |
22 |
27 |
19 |
| Student Accident Number |
7 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
4 |
8 |
6 |
4 |
5 |
13 |
Lost Workdays
A total of 389 lost workdays of all the staff injury cases were recorded by the end of 2014. The comparison of lost workdays over the past 10 years is shown in Table 2 below. In all the 19 staff work-related injury cases, 2 cases did not incur any lost workdays, 6 cases incurred 3 or fewer lost workdays and 11 cases incurred more than 3 lost workdays. The largest number of lost workdays in one single case was 225 days.
| Table 2. Comparison of Lost Workdays |
| Year |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
| Total Number of Lost Workdays |
278 |
430 |
86 |
140 |
473 |
382 |
143.5 |
432 |
272 |
389 |
| Average Lost Workday Per Accident |
7.9 |
17.2 |
4.8 |
6.4 |
17.5 |
10.9 |
7.6 |
19.6 |
10.1 |
20.5 |
Cause of Work/Study-Related Injuries
Figure 1 summarizes the causes for all work/study-related injuries in 2014.
The top cause for work/study-related injuries in 2014 was by "sharp objects", with 8 cases in total. Among these 8 injury cases, 6 of them involved students.
Locations of Accidents
Among the 32 staff and students injury cases:
- 15 occurred in laboratories
- 6 occurred in student quarters
- 2 occurred in office areas
- 5 occurred in indoor common areas
- 2 occurred in outdoor common areas
- 1 occurred in warehouse
- 1 occurred in sport facilities
Common Root Causes of Accidents
Besides classifying causes of injuries in terms of physical sources and energies involved, investigation of the injury cases also revealed some common underlying root causes. These root causes are summarized in Figure 2 below.
Non-injury Incidents
A total of 3 non-injury incidents were reported in 2014, all of which occurred in laboratories. The incidents are summarized below by their nature:
- Chemical spill – 1 case
- Overheating causing smoke – 1 case
- Odour – 1 case
Summary of Significant Findings
- The number of staff injury cases had decreased by 12 cases. The number of student injury cases, however, had increased by 8 cases to a total of 13 cases, which was the highest over the past 10 years. The number of non-injury incidents reduced significantly to 3 cases from 11 cases in previous years.
- Although the number of lost workdays in 2014 was 389 days, which was 43% more than the previous year, one single accident had already contributed 225 lost workdays, and was still counting in early 2015.
- The top cause for injuries in 2014 (8 cases) was by "sharp objects". Among these 8 cases, 6 of them involved students. Most of these injuries were caused by broken glasses, such as broken glass pipettes.
- It is worth noting that there were 3 injury cases involving animal handling, all of which involved students who were bitten by mouse when they were performing experiments with mice.
- The number of accidents occurred in laboratories increased significantly in 2014 to 15 cases as compared with 6 cases in 2013.
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