THE new Workplace Safety and Health Council has its work cut out for it.

A day after the Prime Minister challenged the industry to further slash workplace accidents, a man in his 40s got his hand caught and crushed in a printing machine.

The incident happened at around 11am yesterday at a printing firm in Block 50 Kallang Bahru.

Singapore Civil Defence Force rescuers - together with the firm's technicians - took 45 minutes to dismantle the heavy metal rollers and free his hand.

Conscious throughout the ordeal, the victim was given oxygen and put on an intravenous drip to stabilise his condition, said an SCDF spokesman. He was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

The Manpower Ministry is looking into the industrial accident, which took place just a day after the Workplace Safety and Health Council was launched.

The council is chaired by Shell Singapore chairman Lee Tzu Yang and made up of academics, unionists and corporate chiefs.

It will roll out codes of practice in two areas by the year end - the safe use of machines in manufacturing and the supervision of construction work.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also set employers a target of slashing the workplace death rate to 1.8 per 100,000 workers within 10 years.

If they succeed, Singapore will be one of the safest countries in the world for workers. The country is currently on track to meet an earlier target of 2.5 deaths per 100,000 workers by 2015.

The council, which will lead the way in this effort, had earlier identified hand-related injuries - as in the latest incident - as a key focus this year.

About 150 workers lost their hands or fingers last year. They made up nine in 10 workers suffering permanent injuries.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on May 1, 2008.