Written by Tom Klochan, Safety Coordinator
What are Musculoskeletal Disorders?
The World Health Organization defines musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) as conditions that affect an individual’s locomotor system, which comprises of the muscles, bones, joints and related tissues like tendons and ligaments.
To put it simply, these are health problems that compromise your mobility, flexibility and dexterity. These mainly affect the back, neck, upper limbs, and occasionally, the lower limbs. The most common musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace are:
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Ligament sprain
- Tendonitis
- Muscle or tendon strain
- Tension neck syndrome
- Rotator cuff tendonitis
- Epicondylitis
- Degenerative disc disease
- Herniated disc
Reducing the Risk of Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Workplace
1. Identify the Causes
Recognizing the specific causes of musculoskeletal disorders affecting your workers can help you tailor the solutions. In other words, you can implement policies that address the specific risk factors causing MSDs.
As an example, a common risk factor in the workplace that leads to MSD is the frequent application of excessive force, such as when lifting heavy equipment. Most cases of muscle strain and overexertion occur when the force needed is greater than what a worker’s body can handle. The higher the amount of force required, the higher the risk of injury.
If you’ve identified this as the cause, look for equipment that eases the task of lifting bulky machines. Items like wheeled vehicles, dollies and others to take the hard work out of lifting and moving materials, trash, office equipment.
2. Scheduling Breaks
Another solution for reducing the incidences of musculoskeletal disorders is to schedule breaks for your workers.
The benefit of doing this is that it interrupts the extensive periods of repetitive or monotonous workloads and periods, which increased risk of MSDs. When scheduling breaks for your workers, pay attention to:
- Frequency of breaks: Workers who took more frequent short work breaks experienced less fatigue and stress resulting from work.
- Duration of breaks: The length of the work break is vital to the recovery of tissues and muscles. The impact of micro-breaks (lasting between 1.5 and 2 minutes) shows that these small breaks helped to reduce musculoskeletal pain significantly.
3. Education and Training
Training is one of the most effective ways of preventing MSDs in the workplace. Essentially, by providing your workers with the necessary knowledge, they’ll be able to better exercise caution and avoid work-related risks on their own.
The best way to impart this knowledge is to offer practical training on the job. This entails training the workers how to:
- Understand the risk factors associated with common MSD at the worksite or office, such as shoulder, back and neck pain etc.
- How to reduce the risk of injury when interacting with equipment
- Follow best practices when it comes to sitting, standing, and computing.
4. Provide an Active Environment
A practical way to minimize the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among workers is to provide an active environment. Determine the effectiveness of exercise in reducing work-related musculoskeletal disorders.
Focus on specific physical activities such as resistance training, postural orientation among others. Taking part in resistance exercise sessions 3 times per week to reduce musculoskeletal pain felt in the shoulders, wrists, cervical, dorsal and lumbar spine.
You can encourage the workers to exercise by:
- Conducting standing or walking meetings
- Small sessions during the morning toolbox of simple exercises
- Encourage outside of work exercises or company benefit options
5. Advocate for Early Reporting
We should also encourage the workers to report cases of musculoskeletal disorders early.
The most common symptoms of MSDs are:
- Joint stiffness
- Muscle tightness
- Redness and inflammation of the affected area
- Numbness
- Decreased sweating of the hand
If an employee starts to experience any of these signs, they should report it immediately. Early intervention is necessary because it enables the victim to receive the necessary treatment before the muscle tightness and numbness becomes a full-blown musculoskeletal disorder.
An important point to note is that MSDs develop over a period. This then means that it’s possible to nip the health problem in the bud before it gets worse.
6. Implement Organizational Changes to Eliminate Repetitive Tasks
As we mentioned earlier, one of the things that increases the risk of musculoskeletal disorders is engaging in repetitive tasks.
During work, most workers have very minimal influence on their speed, sequence of tasks and break schedules. This forces them into a cycle of repetitive work, which causes muscle fatigue. With insufficient recovery periods, muscle fatigue often causes irreversible damage to musculature.
To prevent risk of MSDs resulting from repetitive jobs, introduce these organizational changes:
- Shortened Job rotation- this is a structured approach of alternating workers between tasks. This means that the workers rotate between work areas or duties at shorter intervals, hence reducing exposure to the repetitive nature of the job.
- Job diversification – this entails training your employees to perform an array of tasks that may be related or unrelated to their specific skill sets. Job diversification gives your workers opportunities to take part in non-repetitive tasks, which don’t carry any risk of MSDs.
What Causes MSD’s?
As employees perform regular job duties, they face issues (risk factors) that can increase the risk of injury. As exposure to risk factors increases, the risk of injury also increases. When the requirements/demands of a job exceed the capability of an employee performing the job, fatigue, discomfort, pain, and injury may occur. It is ultimately the exposure to injury risk factors that cause MSD’s (the root cause of MSD injuries).
Injury Risk Factors (Root Causes of MSD’s)
Risk factors are conditions of a job that contribute to the risk of developing an MSD. Exposure does not guarantee injury but increases the likelihood. The 3 primary risk factors are:
Force – examples of force include heavy lifting, pushing/pulling, or excessively squeezing a hand tool such as a hammer.
Awkward postures – examples of awkward postures include reaching overhead, bending to ground level to lift a box, or looking down at a laptop monitor.
Repetition/Duration – examples include repeating similar motions/actions (e.g. force, awkward postures, etc.) over the course of a workday. If the duration of these actions is repeated and increased, the more likely for injury.
The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons estimates that one in every two Americans suffers from a musculoskeletal disorder. This goes to show just how rampant the health problem is.
Luckily, we can take several measures to protect the workers from the risk of MSDs. Practical solutions include assessing the risk factors, providing breaks, fostering an active work environment and communicating.