Do it yourselfers, doing it badly!

Don't try this at home, should perhaps be the warning on each and every box.

A US study has found that do it yourself home handyman are hurting themselves more and more often, as they test out the powerful construction tools that once were the domain of the actual trained construction worker.

And far and away the most dangerous tool in your Tool Time workshop is the nail gun, an apparent monster of a machine that if in the wrong hands can cause more than a few bent nails.

37,000 people sought treatment in U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2005 after getting shot or shooting themselves in the hands, arms, legs, head or eyes with nail-guns. 40 per cent (14,800) of those treated were consumers, while the remainder were professional carpenters or other construction workers.

About 95 per cent were men.

We can see the women of Podunk right now nodding in agreement and proclaiming that they're not surprised!

Nail-gun injuries spike
Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
April 12, 2006

TORONTO — The number of nail-gun injuries among consumers has spiked dramatically as more and more do-it-yourselfers arm themselves with the powerful tools for home renovation projects, a U.S. study has found.

A report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that about 37,000 people sought treatment in U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2005 after getting shot or shooting themselves in the hands, arms, legs, head or eyes with nail-guns.

About 40 per cent (14,800) of those treated were consumers, while the remainder were professional carpenters or other construction workers.

About 95 per cent were men.

Principal author Hester Lipscomb, an epidemiologist at Duke University, said the number of nail-gun injuries among DIY home renovators has more than tripled in the last 15 years.

“Since 1991, the estimate among consumers was in the range of 4,000 injuries a year — and now we're looking at about 14,000,” Ms. Lipscomb said from Durham, N.C.

“And it's probably related to the fact that these tools are easy to purchase, they're not expensive and they're available in home supply stores.”

“The tools were developed to increase productivity in work, and they've become so easily available that we now have an issue with consumer safety as well.”

While the hospital database lists only the number of injuries and not exactly how they occurred, Lipscomb said her work with the Carpenters Union of North America shows nail-guns, even among professionals, need to be used with care.

Carpenters given no training before using the rapid-firing devices were twice as likely to be injured as workers given training, she said, noting that consumers may have no access to such education before picking up the tool.

“It's like any other gun, you would treat it with respect,” she said. “You don't point at yourself or someone else. You always assume that it's loaded. You learn how to use it safely. You use the right fasteners for it. You keep trigger locks in place.”

The study showed that injuries to upper extremities, primarily the hands and fingers, were the most common, accounting for 75 per cent of nailings for consumers and 66 per cent for professional workers.

About six per cent of the ER patients were admitted for their injuries, which included nails embedded in their trunk, head, joints or bones; fractures from penetrated nails; and infections from untreated punctures.

No Canadian statistics on nail-gun injuries are available, but Dr. Fred Brenneman of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre said physicians there do see nail-gun injuries on occasion.

But the chief of trauma said he hasn't noticed the numbers rising at the Toronto hospital.

“It's not a huge incidence, I have to say,” said Dr. Brenneman, but noted that the injuries can in some cases be nasty.

Sunnybrook trauma doctors have successfully treated patients who had nails driven into their heads, and one man who had a nail that punctured his heart, he said.

“These are pretty powerful weapons, well they're not weapons, but these pneumatic air-guns are pretty powerful.”

Miki Fendt of Home Depot Canada said she has had reports about the safety feature on nailers being used improperly and jamming, causing unwanted nails to shoot out.

“And people keep their hands a little too close, they get too saucy with their tool and shoot through their fingers,” Mr. Fendt, a contractor services associate at a Home Depot in north Toronto, said of professionals.

“I find generally that homeowners have a lot more respect for those kinds of tools. They wouldn't touch them if they didn't go through intensive training on them. They truly have respect for the tools.”

She advises that consumers read all the safety instructions before using a nailer and to wear protective goggles.

Ms. Lipscomb said that besides increased attention to safety, a change in how nail-gun triggers are engineered could also prevent many injuries.

Many pneumatic nail-drivers have a “contact-trip trigger,” which fires a nail any time the trigger is depressed and the nose of the gun is depressed, she said. Workers use this kind of trigger to walk along nailing as they move forward, in what's known as “bounce” or “bump” nailing, allowing them to fire the fasteners rapidly.

The problem with that contact-trip trigger is that there is less control, and recoiling of the gun can allow high-speed nails to hit the same spot twice, resulting in a ricochet, Ms. Lipscomb said. “And that's dangerous.”

A much better system is the “sequential trigger,” which requires that the gun's nose be in contact with the nailing surface before the trigger can be pulled.

As part of the study, Ms. Lipscomb wants to drive home the message that consumers should investigate the trigger type and choose the safer mechanism when renting or buying a nail-gun.

“As the carpenters I work with will say: ‘You know, they're not called a gun for nothing.'”