Completed Research

Prevention of Nail Gun Injuries in Residential Construction (Completed – 2009-2014)

It seems like every day we see potentially devastating nail gun injuries reported in the press. As Dr. Lipscomb’s work has amply demonstrated, the combination of powerful pneumatic nailers, heavy framing nails, and contact-trip triggers adds up to severe injury for thousands of construction workers every year.

A nail gun with a sequential trigger requires users to depress the nose of the gun against the work before pulling the trigger, making an accident highly unlikely. However, many construction workers continue to work with “contact trip” nail guns (or “bump guns”) that permit users to hold down the trigger and “bump” the gun against a surface to fire it, increasing the chances of an accidental discharge substantially.

Users of tools with a contact-trip trigger face twice the risk of acute injury than users of tools with a sequential trigger. It’s far too easy to “bump” a body part or a coworker instead of a piece of lumber or millwork. “Bump fire” guns will also inadvertently discharge a nail if the tip contacts anything following the recoil that is associated with firing. Frame carpenters, who work with heavy framing nails, are at special risk of severe injury.

Interventions among St. Louis area carpenters, in partnership with the Carpenters Union and the Homebuilders Association, have proven highly effective. Increased use of tools with sequential triggers combined with improved early training in the apprenticeship school have slashed injury rates by approximately 80% in the target population. Researchers have continued surveillance to determine if sequential trigger tool use poses an increased work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) hazard; no evidence of increased WMSD hazard has been found.

The research team has partnered with investigators at WVU to test this approach with non-union builders/framers in that state. Baseline data from builders in West Virginia show markedly higher injury rates among those surveyed than currently seen in the Midwest. The team has developed and delivered a train-the-trainer to 15 individuals from non-union residential building companies using a number of the tools available on the website www.nailgunfacts.org, an employer guidance document jointly published by NIOSH and OSHA (a document largely informed by the team’s own research findings), and a CPWR Hazard Alert pocket card.

An obvious engineering solution to the problem exists: eliminating the contact-trip trigger altogether. The team continues to pursue a dialogue with manufacturers, OSHA, NIOSH, and the Consumer Products Safety Commission to explore this option.