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Issue 277
Ergonomics
A Better Approach to Musculoskeletal Health
The traditional approach to musculoskeletal health management is to reactively treat injuries as they occur. This treatment model is failing us.
A Better Approach to Musculoskeletal Health
Examples of Good Ergonomics Practices at the United States Postal Service
OSHA, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NMHU) and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) entered into an Ergonomic Strategic Partnership in 2003. The goal of the partnership is the reduction of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) through an ergonomic risk reduction process (ERRP). ERRP creates self-sustaining teams and imparts ergonomic identification and resolution skills to the employees of the Postal Service. The ERRP site core team combines the talents of management, labor unions, and individual craft employees to ensure that all employees have a safe and productive workplace.
Examples of Good Ergonomics Practices at the United States Postal Service
Workplace Athlete Health
Total Worker Health Research
A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW) developed an evidence-based approach to address three recognized challenges to workplace programs designed to improve employee health: establishing employee ownership, integrating with work organization, and sustainability. The two main innovations being introduced in combination were (1) integrating traditional workplace health protection (e.g., ergonomics, industrial hygiene) with health promotion (e.g., assisting workers in improving health behaviors) and (2) introducing a bottom-up participatory model for engaging employees in innovative iterative design efforts to enhance both components of this integrated program. In the program, which was modeled after participatory ergonomics programs, teams of workers engage in the iterative design of workplace interventions to address their prioritized health concerns with the support of a multilevel steering committee. The integrated approach being tested can complement existing worksite safety and health initiatives and promote organizational learning, with expected synergistic effects.
Workplace Health Protection and Promotion through Participatory Ergonomics: An Integrated Approach
How to Prevent Low Back Injuries
Fortunately, most occurrences of low back discomfort go away within a matter of days. By far, the best way to manage low back fatigue and discomfort is to prevent it in the first place!
Free Injury Prevention Handout — Preventing Low Back Injuries in the Workplace
Safety Leadership
Who Owns Safety?
The best answer is “all of the above.” But the ownership must be divided. Workers can’t own the engineering budget and priorities, just as the leaders can’t own the day-to-day decisions that impact safety. Most safety departments cannot supervise daily safety nor determine the organizational strategy for safety.
