Ergonomics Awareness On The Construction Industry

Over the past five years, as the economy continues to improve, a growing number of workers are returning to jobs in construction. Historically, an increase in employment means that more workers are exposed to hazards that will likely result in more serious and fatal injuries. Among the top four reasons construction workers are injured, falls remain the leading cause of fatal injury (Bethancourt, 2017). Nevertheless, falls are the leading cause of death in construction. According to OSHA, all construction workers exposed to fall hazards more than 6 ft must be provided fall protection in the form of a guardrail, safety net or personal fall arrest system. OSHA (2010) has also stated that personal fall restraint, when applied correctly, is acceptable

showed that between 2006 – 2015, back strains and other strains accounted for 67 percent of all injury types, while contusions accounted for 16 percent. While the most frequently injured body parts included the back, wrists, fingers, hands, and shoulders (WorkSafe BC, 2015).

Lifting and moving loads manually is the biggest cause of injury, so it is important to

The impact of workplace injury is wide reaching because when hazards of physical and psychological type affect a worker, the impact is not only on the person, but also on the life, the family and of course on the future plans,as well as high

Adjustable workstations are increasingly becoming a main benefit for organizations using them. When using computers at the workplace, employees typically sit down for longer periods without adjustable designed workstations. Such situations can lead to regular back injuries, stress injuries and other forms of injuries. All these injuries result in lost work time and reduced productivity. Using adjustable workstations reduces employee fatigue, makes them comfortable and helps them avoid standing or sitting in awkward postures. Adjustable designed workstations lowers the rate of suffering from tunnel syndrome injuries, which improves both employer and employee morale. This is characterized by improved productivity, reduction in employee absenteeism and minimal workplace complaints (Washington (State), 2009).

Organizations have the responsibility to provide a safe work environment for their employees. Lift equipment is expensive; however the return on investment is profound (ANA, 2013). In my previous organization, we spent two million dollars on a SPHM program, at three years had a full return on investment, and by year seven saved six million dollars (OSHA, 2013). According to Nelson (2008), it takes less time and less wear and tear on the body to use SPHM equipment than to gather a team of people to lift a patient. Physically fit health care providers are four times more likely to be injured due to repeated requests for lift help (Nelson, 2008). Educating health care workers in ergonomics for the past twenty years

In beginning of a her career she is a licensed physical therapist in ROHC and provided physical therapy treatment and her goal is to prevent work related musculoskeletal injuries. She is experienced over 15 years in treating orthopedic injuries caused by occupation. As a Pilates instructor she used to train rehabilitation professionals. She is expert in using neck and back stabilizing techniques on patients and ergonomic clients. She is now Director of Physical Therapy department at Nova Pain and Rehabilitation. Her quest in field of ergonomics made her to establish an ergonomic evaluating office Ergo-RX and provides custom furnishings to the clients. As an ergonomist and physical therapist, Jeannie incorporates her physical therapy treatment and prevention of injuries to the clients and patients she is serving

These motions are often related to patient handling (OSHA, 2013). Hospital workers face numerous risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) in the workplace, such as back and shoulder injuries (Waters, Collins, Galinsky, & Caruso, 2006). These injuries are associated with excessive back and shoulder loading due to lifting heavy loads during manual patient handling, applying excessive forces during the pushing and pulling of objects, required use of awkward postures during patient care, and working long hours (Waters et al., 2006).

36 percent of nurses and support staff suffer from back pain and problems due to manual (no use of assistive devices) patient handling in the workplace (Singh, 2014). Data analysis of Singh’s (2014) experimental design revealed that back pain is a major contributor of musculoskeletal disorders. 13% of nursing and support staff study participants were over 40 years of age. 40.48% reported they often experienced back pain, while 42.38% reported that they sometimes experience back pain from patient handling task. The data analysis reveals the work of nurses and support staff

There is a strong link between jobs that involve overuse or heavy activities involving the hand and aggravation of symptoms (Middleton & Anakwe, 2014). This is reflected in the high claims of worker’s compensation among certain workplaces relating to repetitive strain injury (Patijn et al., 2011). Latent stage of chronic compression leads to demyelination, fibrosis, and nerve fibre degeneration; particularly muscle deterioration of the thenar eminence (Gruber, Gruber, Djurdjevic, Schullian, & Loizides, 2016; Middleton & Anakwe, 2014). Abnormal sensations and paraesthesia may radiate into the forearm and axilla (Moore et al.,

Excessive repetitive joint loading- Repetative loading involving people from different occupation include farmers, metal workers,

In order to make the plant safer falls prevention campaign can be instituted to provide outreach in order to raise awareness among workers and employers about the hazards of falls from ladders and scaffolds. The educational resources page gives workers and employers information about falls and how to prevent them. Likewise, there are also training tools for employers to use and posters to display at their worksites. Falls can be prevented through three steps which include planning ahead to get the job done safely in an orderly manner, provide the right equipment, and train everyone to use the equipment in a safe manner. Therefore, seeing how scaffolds are used, it would be critical for employers to properly inform employees on how to prevent

Ergonomics is the study of how efficient a person can be given their working environment. “Ergonomics for

In the United States, construction has always been one of the most dangerous industries to work in. The number of fatalities that occur in this industry year after year demonstrate this. In 2014, 19.6% of worker fatalities, in private industry, were in construction (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015) despite the industry comprising only 6.8% of the total work force. This epidemic is not unique to the United States. Essentially every country faces similar problems regarding construction safety. For example, in 2004 the Australian construction industry employed approximately 8% of the countries workforce. However, workers compensation statistics indicated that the industry’s incidence rate was 28.6 per 1000 employees,

What is ergonomics? Ergonomics is the science of fitting the job to the worker. When there is a mismatch between the physical requirements of the job and the physical capacity of the worker, work-related musculoskeletal disorders can result. Workers who must repeat the same motion throughout their workday, work in an awkward position use a great deal of force to perform, repeatedly lift heavy objects or face a combination of these risk factors are most likely to develop work-related musculoskeletal disorders.