An understated work injury that is one of the most common ones, is musculoskeletal disorders. Due to the repetitive nature of most job duties, injuries and disorders due to overuse is very common in the workplace. As an employer, it is your duty to ensure that your workers are trained on proper body mechanics, and that there is a plan in place to keep your workers protected and being supportive if issues arise.
Musculoskeletal disorders are injuries or disorders of the muscles, nerves, tendons, joints, cartilage, and spinal disks. Work related musculoskeletal disorders are conditions where the work environment and performance of work substantially contributes to the development of these conditions or these conditions are made worse or persist longer due to working conditions. Industries where these are most common are in manual labor jobs, healthcare jobs and office jobs.
Some risk factors for your employees to developing these types of conditions are:
• Routine lifting of heavy objects
• Routine overhead work
• Routine performance of repetitive or forceful tasks
• Routine sitting, stooping, climbing, reaching, twisting, or bending over a desk to complete work duties
MSDs are not injuries or conditions that are caused by slips, trips, falls or similar incidents. Some examples of MSD’s are:
• Back pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Sprains, strains, and tears
• Hernias
MSD’s account for at least 1/3 of all work-related injuries and conditions, and are responsible for the loss of many hours and days of employee productivity, as well as increased health care costs, disability, and worker’s compensation costs. They tend to be more regularly serious than other types of non-fatal injuries or illnesses.
In nearly 80% of cases, most of those who were injured were between the ages of 25-54 years old and in those age groups, men tended to be most commonly affected. Those in manufacturing and administrative support occupations accounted for 58% of all MSD cases, with manufacturing and service industry sectors accounting for half of all cases across the board.
The costs of these injuries and disorders cost businesses and employers over $13-billion/year, and as with many things in life, prevention is key to saving your business and your workers from these conditions.
Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Injuries in the Workplace
Using a proactive ergonomics process that helps to identify ergonomic risk factors is going to be the first step in your ability to help prevent MSDs. This means that you may need to survey your employees and ensure that everyone is comfortable with the work they are doing and ensuring they are remaining safe and using proper body mechanics to complete their job tasks. Creating a training plan and giving them tips on how to keep themselves safe at work is part of this first step. By talking, training and identifying risk factors, you can get a bird’s eye view over how your employers are doing and assess their strengths and weaknesses regarding ergonomics, and then you can proceed with the following tips:
1. Administrative controls. If possible, shuffling employees around and slightly changing up their jobs occasionally can help to prevent overuse of certain body systems they are used to using regularly. This can include allowing time to stretch or encouraging employees to move around if they begin to feel symptoms of discomfort from overuse or poor ergonomics.
2. Engineering controls. If you can eliminate or reduce awkward postures with the aid of ergonomic modifications that seek to maintain joint range of motion in order to accomplish work tasks, these ergonomic modifications can help employees avoid injury.
3. Work practice controls. Work procedures that consider and reduce awkward postures should be implemented for the physical safety of your employees. This includes training them on good and proper body mechanics, work techniques and encouraging them to accept their responsibility for using their bodies properly and avoiding awkward poses or postures as much as possible.
To learn more about how you can help prevent MSD in your workforce, click here.
You know that in order to keep your employees and business productive, it’s important to be familiar with some of these common work hazards. By implementing an ergonomics safety plan and educating your employees on how they can keep themselves protected from musculoskeletal disorders and injuries, not only will you improve productivity, but also save big money on healthcare and worker’s compensation costs. To learn more about how you can help your employees help you and educating yourself on these common concerns, click here.