What medical information should be available before the water jetting operations start?
Before starting the water jetting job, the operators must have been instructed on the measures to be taken in case of an incident or medical emergency.
The team shall be informed of the fact that if a person is hit by a waterjet, they should always immediately go/ or be taken by ambulance, to a hospital or medical centre, where the injury can be evaluated and treated correctly.
In this regard, all the workers must know before commencing work the proper procedures to deal with an accident on a working site. That could be a contact in an on-site medical centre, a factory call to inform the emergency services or a direct call to emergency services to get help as quick as possible.
When taking the injured person to the hospital, it will be highly recommended to carry a document that includes information for the medical staff on how to proceed when treating a waterjet injury. Before starting the job, all workers must have this document, to be able to use it in case of necessity.
Ideally in cases of emergencies an ambulance should always be requested. Transporting an injured colleague privately could aggravate and worsen an injured worker’s condition as well as endangering the driver.
To this effect, in the section 8.4 of this guide, you will find a worksheet for water jetting accidents, intended to help medical staff who are going to treat these types of injuries.
Additionally, it would be advisable that a waterjet team should be trained for CPR and first aid, to be able to assist the injured person if necessary.
Furthermore, when working in especially hazardous conditions, all the information related to the potential injuries caused by those conditions must be available for all the team, and workers must have been informed about it previously. This information must be passed onto the medical staff to treat the injuries accordingly.
This is the case in jobs taking place in e.g., chemical/petrochemical facilities which have hazardous substances in them. In these situations, the manager of the facilities must inform, before the beginning of the job, the water jetting company about which products are in the objects being cleaned, how to protect the workers from them, and how to proceed in case of accidental exposure. A working permit or danger assessment needs to be discussed with the workers before beginning operations.
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