Mohammad Tahir Kazi, Sana Iqbal, Syed Abid Hussain Shah, Hira Ejaz, Iqbal Ahmad Khan.
Patterns and causes of accidents and injuries among Islamabad Electric Supply Company workers.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;5(4):17-22.

Background: Since the invention of electricity and electrication in the USA in 1890s, there had been heavy loss of human lives working as line staff, approximately one in two in early phases. Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO), one of the seven electrical companies created after bifurcation of WAPDA, is no exception in occurrence of such accidents with almost ten fatal accidents per year and hundred deaths of line staff workers in a year country wide. It is, thus, to critically analyze patterns of accidents and ascertain their causes. Material & Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted among IESCO employees of line staff. Total of 200 participants were included in the study. A structured questionnaire was developed which was lled by the participants. Data entry and analysis was done by using Statistical Software, SPSS 17. Results: In previous ten years 100 fatal and 96 non-fatal accidents occurred in IESCO. There are about 13000 workers in IESCO at present. Majority of workers died due to head injuries and burns due to electrocution (29 due head injuries and 42 due to electrocution). 57% of the respondents consider overcondence and defective Personal Protective Measures (PPM) as major cause of accidents. 69% of respondents consider non-adherence to SOP as cause of these accidents. Conclusions: There are many causes that contribute towards occurrence of accidents in most of cases. A narrow majority of respondents are not satised with the safety standards and their implementation level. Among the leading causes of accidents are: not following protocol of work, over condence, defective and incomplete PPM and over work. Key Words: Prevalence, pattern, accidents, injuries, safety, burns, electrocution, workers.

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