Back injuries

The subject of lower-back injuries and back supports is usually included in any discussion on material handling safety. Much has been written on this subject in recent years, including the pros and cons of back belts. Various studies sometimes contradict each other. The main points of the lower-back injuries/support belts issue will be discussed here. 

Back injuries are very common throughout the workforce, although some industries and occupations have more back injuries than others. Back injuries account for nearly 20 percent of all workplace injuries and are the leading cause of injuries to workers under the age of forty-five. The costs associated with back injuries are estimated at 20 to 50 billion per year. 

Surgeries for some 350,000 spinal injuries are performed each year on all kinds of people. The most common operation, called a diskectomy, entails removing one or more of the jelly-doughnut-like cushions that separate the vertebrae and serve as shock absorbers. Many of these surgeries cost about 30,000 and include at least eight days hospitalization. 

Approximately 80 percent of the U.S. population will be laid low sometime by an episode of back pain. 

Poor posture is listed as a big factor in back problems. Nutrition and exercise are key factors in good back care. Strong back and stomach muscles are the guy wires that support a spine. Being in good physical condition also speeds up a recovery process should one need a back operation. 

Most of the safety and health community consider back injuries a one time event. It seems more realistic to consider them as caused by a series of microtraumas (strains and sprains) over time which eventually result in what we commonly call a back injury. This concept moves back injuries into the realm of cumulative trauma disorders. Many companies in the past hired young workers to do continuous or repetitive lifting task rather than use older or more experienced workers. These young workers had not had the micro-trauma injuries that set them up for a back injury. 

The spine (back) is like a stack of kids blocks (vertebrae) supported by string, wire, and sheets of plastic (tendons, ligaments, tissues, and muscles). Like any materiaL these tendons, ligaments and muscles are pulled, stretched and twisted as they support the back It is no wonder that, when they are not maintained or rested, and/or receive a lot of strain or pressure, they are sprained or strained and cause pain. This is why many back injury cases require little or no medical treatment other than to avoid lifting and allow the tom body tissue time to heal. 

The lower back supports 70 to 80 percent of the body s weight above the hips. If the weight of an object to be lifted or the worker is overweight with a pot-belly, a great deal of stress is being placed on the back, which is often more than the back can support. Much can be done to prevent an injury to the back some of these are  

Warm up before lifting, like athletes always do before strenuous exertion, then use good lifting techniques such as  

Get a firm footing, separate feet, point toes out and place one foot slightly in front of the other. 

FIGURE 23.2 Safe lifting techniques can help prevent back injuries. 

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Sex. Williiii a given job setting, a worker s sex may increase tlie individual s propensity for accidents and injuries. For example, if a job originally designed for male workers is opened to female workers, tlie possibility of increased proneness to injuries of certain types (e.g., back injuries) should be considered."... 

In one week in 1989 Ann s health deteriorated rapidly from MCS. Her medical career had abruptly ended nine months earlier when she sustained a back injury. She went from living an active, athletic life to living in the backseat of her Chevy Impala. Although her medical license is current she is still unable to practice medicine due to severe physical limitations. 

The swimmer s back injury his prospects for a gold medal... 

A 36-year-old woman with no past psychiatric problems took 23 tablets of cyclobenzaprine (10 mg each) over 6 weeks to ease back pain resulting from a back injury. She developed insomnia, reduced appetite, poor concentration, irritability, disorganized thoughts, persecutory delusions, and auditory hallucinations. Cyclobenzaprine was withdrawn and a course of loxapine was started, leading to rapid and complete resolution of her agitation and psychotic symptoms within 72 hours. Loxapine was subsequently quickly withdrawn with no ill effects and she recovered fully. 

Liles et al. (1984) performed a field study to determine the relationship between JSI and the incidence and severity of LBDs. A total of 453 subjects was included in the study. The results of the field study indicated that both incidence and severity of recordable back injuries rose rapidly at values of JSI greater than 1.5. The denominator for the incidence and severity rates is 100 full-time employees, that is, 200,000 exposure hours. JSI can be reduced to a desirable level by increasing worker capacity (e.g., selecting a worker with higher capacity) or altering task and job parameters to reduce JSI to an acceptable level. 

Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) (1988), Special Report, Back Injuries Costs, Causes, Cases and Prevention, Bureau of National Affairs, Washington, DC. 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) (1982), Back Injuries Associated with Lifting, Bulletin 2144, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. 

Low-back injury risk assessment See Chaffin et al. 1999 Joint torques, postures Suitable... 

Low-back injury is estimated to cost the U.S. industry tens of biUions annually through compensation claims, lost workdays, reduced productivity, and retraining needs (NIOSH 1997 Cats-Baril and Fry-moyer 1991 Frymoyer et al. 1983). Approximately 33% of aU workers compensation costs are for musculoskeletal disorders. Experience has shown that these injuries can be avoided with the proper ergonomic intervention. Biomechanical models available can be used for job analysis either proactively, during the design phase, or reactively in response to injury incidence, to help identify the injurious situations. The most common types of injury-assessment analyses performed using human models include low-back compression force analysis and strength analysis. 

Depending on the human performance tool, the postural information reqirired for an assessment may require a static posture at an instance in time, or multiple key postures at different times in the task. For example, the NIOSH lifting guide (NIOSH 1991) requires starting and ending postures of a lift to arrive at an assessment of the lift conditions. In contrast, analysis tools based on biomechanical models, such as low-back injury risk-assessment tools, can analyze loading conditions continuously for each posture throughout the simulation. 

If Jane is a permanent, experienced worker, the below-standard performance could be considered excused or nonexcused. Excused failure is for temporary situations—bad parts from the supplier, back injuries, pregnancy for females, and so forth. For example, Employees returning to work fiom Worker s Compensation due to a loss-of-time accident in excess of 30 days will be given consideration based upon the medical circumstances of each individual case. ... 

Digital human modeling, 1112-1127 and anthropometry, 1113—1115 databases, 1113 methods, 1113-1115 of comfort, 1120 of fatigue, 1188-1119 and immersive virtual reality, 1124 kinematic representation in, 1112-1113 of low-back injury, 1119-1120 motion/animation in, 1116, 1120, 1125-1127... 

Incident Reporting and Investigation Accident Prevention Signs and Tags Hand Safety Back Injury Prevention Behavioral Safety Bloodborne Pathogens Confined Space Lockout/T agout Drug and Alcohol HazCom... 

The back is the most frequently injured part of the body. Most safety and health programs strongly emphasize instruction on how to lift without hurting the back. Back injuries are often due to poor lifting techniques. Being out of shape makes it easier to incur a back injury. Once the back is injured, it becomes more prone to being injured again. 

Table 4 in the BLS report is titled Number of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Involving Days Away from Work by Selected Injury or Illness Characteristics and Industry Division, 2000. Lor private industry as a whole, strains and sprains, carpal tunnel syndrome, and tendonitis were 46.3% of total cases. Similar figures are commonly expressed. Lor example. Dr. Lranklin Mirer, Director of the UAW Health and Safety Department, says that for about 700,000 auto workers, over 50% of all incidents reported are musculoskeletal. And the costs for musculoskeletal injuries tend to ran high, especially for serious back injuries. 

Statement applies to every incident category overexertion (back injuries, strains, and sprains) slips falls caught in between struck by an object fires electrocution reaction to a chemical and so on. 

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