Ergonomics Education

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Ergonomics Education

• For Injury Reduction

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Goals

• Define ergonomics and its benefits
• Identify work activities that can lead to injury
• List examples of ergonomic principles that reduce
  risk of injury
• Participate in your companys ergonomic efforts
• Identify parts of the body that get injured at
  work
• Recognize and report signs and symptoms of injury
  early

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Definitions

• Work-related caused, aggravated, exacerbated by
  work place exposures (WHO, 1985)
• WMSD A acronym for disorders and diseases of the
  musculoskeletal system tendon, muscle, nerve,
  joints (Hagberg, 1995)

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Definition of ergonomics

• Ergonomics means
• fitting the job to the worker
• Ergonomics is the science and practice of
  designing jobs and workplaces to match the
  capabilities and limitations of the human body.

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Ergonomics _at_ Work
Cart reduces risk of injury
Risk of injury - Heavy lifting
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Benefits of ergonomics

• Ergonomics helps to prevent injuries
• Ergonomics has other benefits
• Improved quality of work
• Improved quality of life
• Reduced fatigue and discomfort

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Injuries and risk factors
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Injuries and Risk Factors

• In this section
• What are Work-related Musculo Skeletal Disorders
  (WMSDs)?
• Common types and symptoms of injury
• Causes and prevention of injury

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Work-related Musculo Skeletal Disorders (WMSDs)?

• Also known as
• Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
• Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSIs)
• Overuse injuries
• Soft tissue injuries
• Usually develop gradually, but sometimes can
  appear suddenly
• Can be serious, if not taken care of early

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What are some of the symptoms of WMSDs?

• Discomfort
• Pain
• Numbness
• Tingling

• Burning Sensation
• Swelling
• Change in color
• Tightness, loss of flexibility

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Reporting In the Workplace

• Overall, research found that
• 22 of all office workers reported pain to the
  workplace
• Among those workers with pain (599), 362 (the
  majority) did not report pain to the workplace
• So there is a threshold for reporting pain.
• Of the 362 with pain in the last year
• Most did not give a reason
• 85 did not report because symptoms were mild or
  not considered a problem
• (Hogg-Johnson et al., in preparation)

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What causes WMSDs?

• Risk Factors
• Awkward Postures
• High Hand Force
• Repetitive Motions
• Repeated Impacts
• Heavy, Frequent, or Awkward Lifting
• Moderate to High Hand-Arm Vibration

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Risk Factors

• Risk of injury depends upon
• Duration (how long)
• Frequency (how often)
• Intensity (how much)
• Combinations of risk factors

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Risk Factors

• Duration
• usually need hours of exposure before risk
  factors become a concern
• Can be all at one time or cumulative over the day

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Focus on our Core

• What's the spine for anyway?
• Primary stabilizer of the body
• Shock absorber
• Increases agility and range of motion
• Protects the spinal cord

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Causes of Back injuries

• Trauma
• Any outside force to the body causing injury such
  as a car accident or fall incident
• Overuse
• The body is not designed to perform the same
  motion over and over for an extended period of
  time so muscles and tendons can get irritated and
  ligaments can break down
• Postural dysfunction
• adaptive changes in muscle length ( too short or
  too long) decrease its ability to function
  properly
• Creates joint compression leading to cartilage
  and disc breakdown

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Some Numbers

• In an office setting, (Polanyi et al., 1997)
• 60 of workers reported having neck or upper limb
  pain over the past year
• In an auto parts manufacturing company, (Wells et
  al., 2000)
• 80 of workers reporting some musculoskeletal
  (MSK) pain (includes back and legs as well) over
  the past year

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Risk factors for WMSDs
Awkward postures
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Neutral postures
Standing neutral posture
Seated neutral posture
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Posture and Spinal Pressure
Very Bad Posture Force
Great! Resting on Back
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Hands over head or elbows above shoulders
For more than 2 hours per day
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Neck bent more than 30
For more than 2 hours per day
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Back bent more than 30
For more than 2 hours per day
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Squatting
For more than 2 hours per day
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Kneeling
For more than 2 hours per day
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Wrists bent
Extension
Ulnar deviation
Flexion
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Reducing awkward postures

• Change workstation heights display heights
• Tilt or rotate the work
• Use platforms
• Bring items within easy reach
• Pause to stretch

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Reducing awkward postures
Case Study
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The Key to Good posture

• Standing
• Neutral head position
• Shoulders and spine square over the hips
• Hips square over the feet
• Non-heeled shoes
• Sitting
• Feet flat on the floor
• Hips and spine at a 90 angle
• Spine supported against the back rest

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Risk factors for WMSDs
Heavy, frequent or awkward lifting
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Heavy lifting

• Lifting 75 lbs. once per day
• Lifting 55 lbs. more than 10 times per day

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Reducing heavy lifting

• Take smaller loads at one time
• Use mechanical assistance - handtrucks, carts,
  hoists, conveyors
• Get help from a co-worker

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Frequent lifting

• Lifting more than 10 lbs., more than twice per
  minute, for more than 2 hours per day

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Reducing frequent lifting

• Use mechanical assistance
• Slide objects instead of lifting them
• Rotate lifting tasks with co-workers if possible

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Awkward lifting

• Lifting more than 25 lbs. above the shoulders,
  below the knees or at arms length more than 25
  times per day

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Reducing awkward lifts

• Store items where you wont have to bend or reach
  to lift them
• Use rolling stairs to get items down from high
  shelves

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Oliver-Tolas Observations

• Poor standing and sitting posture
• Work stations too high and too low
• Poor body mechanics
• Bending from the back and over reaching
• Leaning on one leg
• Lifting and twisting

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Lifting positions

• Squat
• Generally used for heavy lifting
• Staggered
• Generally used for heavy lifting as an
  alternative to the squat position
• Golfers lift
• Named after the technique golfers used to pick up
  their tees. Used for very light objects

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Safer Lifting
Keep your spine in a neutral position by
contracting your abdominals
Exhale on the way up when lifting extremely heavy
objects
The closer you hold the object to you, the less
strain it will place on your spine
Always lift from the legsnever from your back
No leg muscles used!
Far from Torso
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What you can do

• Recognize and report symptoms early.
• Get involved in ergonomics

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Symptom recognition and reporting

• Report symptoms if
• Pain is persistent, severe or worsening
• Pain radiates
• Symptoms include numbness or tingling
• Symptoms keep you from sleeping at night

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Why is it important to report symptoms early?

• Chronic injuries sometimes lead to disability,
  even surgery
• The earlier treatment is rendered the more
  successful it can be in preventing lifelong
  problems

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Getting involved

• Look at jobs and help identify problems
• Come up with solutions
• Work with solutions
• Take part in training
• Take responsibility for changing the way you do
  your job
• Help to make sure efforts are successful

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You can play an important part

• You may be asked to participate in
• Analyzing caution zone jobs for hazards
• Finding solutions to these hazards
• Evaluating the success of the solutions
• Later, you may
• be given job specific training on proper use of
  solutions
• keep in touch with ergonomics efforts through the
  safety committee or at safety meetings.

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Key points to remember

• Ergonomics can help you on your job
• Risk factors can be reduced and WMSDs prevented
• You can help your company put ergonomics changes
  into place
• WMSDs can happen in jobs with risk factors
• Reporting symptoms early is important

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Thank you

• Quiz Time!!