HEALTH & SAFETY Terry Peed | Contributing Author THE MECHANICS HANDS


I recently left a cushy offi ce job to go back to turning wrenches on EMS helicopters. After


pulling some heavy maintenance a couple of weeks ago, I was painfully reminded of why I had left maintenance in the fi rst place. Aside from the obvious aches and pains of old age, I am nursing a pair of dried-up, cracking, sore, worthless, lousy excuses for appendages I used to call my hands. I know my hands have gotten pretty soft for the last few years, but what happened? Instead of just dealing with the pain and discomfort like I used to do when I was younger, I decided to do the research and fi nd the causes of my misery and what I can do to alleviate it. I would like to pass on to you what I learned.


Human hands are incredibly designed tools that


are capable of many diff erent tasks. They can create music and art. They can communicate our thoughts through sign language or merely by our touch. We have honored the importance of our hands throughout history through poetry and music. Our thumbs have made the diff erence between us and the animals. Nowadays I look around and see others using them mostly for holding smart phones and for texting. For us mechanics, though, next to our brain and our eyes, our hands are the most important body part when it comes to doing our jobs.


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HelicopterMaintenanceMagazine.com June | July 2016


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