Sheakley Updates

Ergonomics in the Workplace

Ella Baker
Ergonomics
Reading time 8 Mins
Published on Aug 24
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Designing work spaces to fit your employees

Ergonomics can be defined simply as the study of work. More specifically, ergonomics is the science of designing the job to fit the worker, rather than physically forcing the worker’s body to fit the job. Adapting tasks, work stations, tools, and equipment to fit the worker can help reduce physical stress on a worker’s body and eliminate many potentially serious, disabling work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Ergonomics draws on a number of scientific disciplines, including physiology, biomechanics, psychology, anthropometry, industrial hygiene, and kinesiology.

Importance of ergonomics

Industries increasingly require higher production rates and advances in technology to remain competitive and stay in business. As a result, jobs today can involve:

  • Frequent lifting, carrying, and pushing or pulling loads without help from other workers or devices;
  • Increasing specialization that requires the worker to perform only one function or movement for a long period of time or day after day;
  • Working more than 8 hours a day;
  • Working at a quicker pace of work, such as faster assembly line speeds; and
  • Having tighter grips when using tools.

These factors create physical stress on workers’ bodies, which can lead to injury. A dramatic increase in MSDs began in the 1970s when these disorders increasingly appeared on companies’ injury and illness logs. OSHA cited companies for hazardous workplace conditions that caused problems such as tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and back injuries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor, recognizes MSDs as a serious workplace health hazard, accounting for up to one-third of all workday losses.

If work tasks and equipment do not include ergonomic principles in their design, workers may have exposure to undue physical stress, strain, and overexertion, including vibration, awkward postures, forceful exertions, repetitive motion, and heavy lifting. Recognizing ergonomic risk factors in the workplace is an essential first step in correcting hazards and improving worker protection. Ergonomists, industrial engineers, occupational safety and health professionals, and other trained individuals believe that reducing physical stress in the workplace could eliminate up to half of the serious injuries each year. Employers can learn to anticipate what might go wrong and alter tools and the work environment to make tasks safer for their workers.

MSDs and Risk Factors

MSDs, or musculoskeletal disorders, are injuries and disorders of the soft tissues and nervous system. They can affect nearly all tissues, including the nerves and tendon sheaths, and most frequently involve the arms and back.

Also known as cumulative trauma disorders, repeated trauma, repetitive stress injuries, and occupational overexertion syndrome, these painful and often disabling injuries generally develop gradually over weeks, months, and years. MSDs usually result from exposure to multiple risk factors that can cause or exacerbate the disorders, not from a single event or trauma such as a fall, collision, or entanglement.

MSDs can cause a number of conditions, including pain, numbness, tingling, stiff joints, difficulty moving, muscle loss, and sometimes paralysis. Frequently, workers must lose time from work to recover; some never regain full health. These disorders include carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, sciatica, herniated discs, and low back pain. MSDs do not include injuries resulting from slips, trips, falls, or similar accidents.

Work-related MSDs occur when the physical capabilities of the worker do not match the physical requirements of the job. Prolonged exposure to ergonomic risk factors can cause damage a worker’s body and lead to MSDs.

Conditions that are likely to cause MSD problems include the following:

  • Exerting excessive force;
  • Excessive repetition of movements that can irritate tendons and increase pressure on nerves;
  • Awkward postures, or unsupported positions that stretch physical limits, can compress nerves and irritate tendons;
  • Static postures, or positions that a worker must hold for long periods of time, can restrict blood flow and damage muscles;
  • Motion, such as increased speed or acceleration when bending and twisting, can increase the amount of force exerted on the body;
  • Compression, from grasping sharp edges like tool handles, can concentrate force on small areas of the body, reduce blood flow and nerve transmission, and damage tendons and tendon sheaths;
  • Inadequate recovery time due to overtime, lack of breaks, and failure to vary tasks can leave insufficient time for tissue repair;
  • Excessive vibration, usually from vibrating tools, can decrease blood flow, damage nerves, and contribute to muscle fatigue.
  • Whole-body vibration, from driving trucks or operating subways, can affect skeletal muscles and cause low-back pain; and
  • Working in cold temperatures can adversely affect a worker’s coordination and manual dexterity and cause a worker to use more force than necessary to perform a task.

These risk factors, either alone or in combination, can subject workers’ shoulders, arms, hands, wrists, backs, and legs to thousands of repetitive twisting, forceful, or flexing motions during a typical workday. To contribute to MSDs, however, these risk factors must be present for a sufficient duration, frequency, or magnitude.

Types of work that pose ergonomic hazards

MSDs affect workers in almost every occupation and industry in the nation and in workplaces of all sizes. The disorders occur most frequently in jobs that involve:

  • Manual handling,
  • Manufacturing and production,
  • Heavy lifting,
  • Twisting movements, and
  • Long hours of working in awkward positions.

The list top 10 occupations for MSDs is varied and demonstrates that nearly all industries are susceptible to MSDs if proper ergonomics are not practiced. The 10 occupations most likely to be affected by MSDs are:

  • Nurses aides, orderlies, and attendants
  • Truck drivers
  • Laborers not involved in construction work
  • Assemblers
  • Janitors and cleaners
  • Registered nurses
  • Stock handlers and baggers
  • Construction laborers
  • Cashiers
  • Carpenters

How ergonomics can help

Providing a workplace free of ergonomic hazards can do the following:

  • Lower injury rates as MSD incidences go down;
  • Increase productivity by making jobs easier and more comfortable for workers;
  • Improve product quality because fewer errors will be made when using automated processes that demand less physical effort;
  • Reduce absences because workers will be less likely to take time off to recover from muscle soreness, fatigue, and MSD-related problems;
  • Reduce turnover as new hires are more likely to find an ergonomically designed job within their physical capacity;
  • Lower costs as workers’ compensation and other payments for illness and replacement workers go down;
  • Improve worker safety;
  • Increase worker comfort;
  • Reduce worker fatigue; and
  • Improve worker morale.

Controls for MSD Hazards

To reduce the chance of injury, work tasks should be designed to limit exposure to ergonomic risk factors. Engineering controls are the most desirable, where possible. Administrative or work practice controls may be appropriate in some cases where engineering controls cannot be implemented or when different procedures are needed after implementation of the new engineering controls. Personal protection solutions have only limited effectiveness when dealing with ergonomic hazards.

Engineering Controls refers to implementing physical change to the workplace, which eliminates/reduces the hazard on the job/task. These changes may include:

  • Use a device to lift and reposition heavy objects to limit force exertion
  • Reduce the weight of a load to limit force exertion
  • Reposition a work table to eliminate a long/excessive reach and enable working in neutral postures
  • Use diverging conveyors off a main line so that tasks are less repetitive
  • Install diverters on conveyors to direct materials toward the worker to eliminate excessive leaning or reaching
  • Redesign tools to enable neutral postures

Administrative and Work Practice Controls are the establishment of efficient processes or procedures to help reduce MSDs. These may include:

  • Require that heavy loads are only lifted by two people to limit force exertion
  • Establish systems so workers are rotated away from tasks to minimize the duration of continual exertion, repetitive motions, and awkward postures. Design a job rotation system in which employees rotate between jobs that use different muscle groups
  • Staff “floaters” to provide periodic breaks between scheduled breaks
  • Properly use and maintain pneumatic and power tools

Personal Protective Equipment involves the use protection to reduce exposure to ergonomics-related risk factors. This may include:

  • Use padding to reduce direct contact with hard, sharp, or vibrating surfaces
  • Wear good fitting thermal gloves to help with cold conditions while maintaining the ability to grasp items easily

Ergonomics and Sheakley

Ergonomics will remain a costly issue for businesses that elect to ignore it. Addressing ergonomics does not necessarily require a significant financial expenditure but rather with strong management commitment, appropriate policies and procedures and training, businesses can help ensure workers avoid injuries and thus the costs associated with the loss of employee productivity and time away from work due to injury. Sheakley can help you develop policies and provide assistance with workplace ergonomics issues to help you reduce the number of MSDs experienced by your employees. Sheakley’s Workforce Management Services experts provide complete safety resources for your company.

Get your free safety consultation today with an expert from Sheakley. Stay up-to-date on all things Sheakley by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media. Join in the discussion by commenting below.


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