Example Back Injuries

In my earlier days as a safety professional at a manufacturing plant, the biggest concern to management was back injuries. This company made a valiant effort to eliminate any heavy lifting during any assigned work tasks. One back injury was enough to send 

Accurate measurements must be taken and recorded. As mentioned with detailed information and incomplete reporting, the accuracy of any measurements is important. Besides taking physical measurements, I recommend taking pictures. I think it is a good idea for all supervisors to have a camera immediately available. A digital camera would be excellent, but a disposable camera will usually suffice. 

Not that anyone would skew results on purpose, but I have reviewed accident reports and followed up with victim interviews that did not appear to match. This type of situation is not a one-time occurrence. It is sometimes difficult to discern if the people I interviewed had lapses or if the written report was inaccurate. If pictures are available, I have found them to be helpful when accident occurrences need to be re-created. 

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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."... 

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. ... 

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. 

For example. Dr. Franklin 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 run high, especially for serious back injuries. 

Under the Disparate Impact theory, safety professionals should be aware that conduct that appears fair on its face but can detrimentally affect a number of individuals in a protected class can also constitute discrimination. However, safety professionals should be aware that if the employer has a job-related or business reason for this different treatment, this conduct may be permissible. For example, the safety professional is incurring a number of back injuries in the dock area where employees are lifting constantly. The company, in an effort to rednce back injuries, requires all employees to be able to lift X lbs. This conduct may disproportionally affect female employees. If the company possesses a valid business reason, such as reduction of back injuries, this may be appropriate however, even with a valid business reason, this practice may constitute discrimination if an alternative method, such as lifting assist equipment, exists that would not disproportionally affect the female employees. 

For example, a sales person may solicit a run that requires a violation of hours of service, or solicits freight that is labor intensive, causing an increased exposure to back injury. A dispatcher may be pressuring drivers into doing things they othenwise would not do. 

Home and recreational activities involving forceful exertions or awkward postures cau also lead to or aggravate back injuries. Some examples include sports and home repair work. Physical fimess, weight, diet, exercise, personal habits, and lifestyle may also affect the development of back injuries. Individuals not in good physical condition tend to have more injuries. Excessive body weight can place added stress on the spine and is often associated with a higher rate of back injuries. 

It is difficult to establish if certain kinds of injuries occur during employment. For example, hernias, back injuries, and diseases with a latency period between exposure and observable symptoms all create problems in ehgibUity. A worker may file a claim stating that the injury was job-related and occurred on the job. Diagnostic procedures may not be able to establish the time or place of injury to verify whether it was job-related. Many of the laws have special provisions to deal with these problem cases. 

An example of a performance goal may be the reduction of recordable back injuries by 80 percent in a three-month period. The performance goals and standards... 

Descriptive statistics are techniques used to describe a population or sample. One cannot draw conclusions using descriptive statistics. For example, suppose a safety manager collects information from accident report forms about the age of workers that suffered a back injury. The average age for the sample was found to be 45 years old. The only conclusion the safety manager can make is that the average age of those persons from which the sample was selected is 45 years old. He or she cannot conclude that the average age for all people ever suffering from a back injury is 45 years... 

To address a unique issue or a specific problem, the use of special emphasis programs is an appropriate motivational tool. These programs define a problem or issue, use symbolism (drawings or slogans) to elicit or trigger an appropriate response, indicate a true interest in the special area of emphasis, and use a structured approach to address the special issue. It is used to cause focused attention on a specific area. An example would be a special emphasis program on back injury prevention. 

In this stage, risks are eliminated. An example of this is a manual handling hazard in which lifting heavy boxes may result in back strain. The risk may be avoided through the use of a mechanical aid (fork-lift truck), therefore eliminating the risk of back injury with the task. Another example is where a fire hazard exists in a particular area of a plant. Switching to non-combustible materials can eliminate this hazard, and so prevent it being realized. 

An example of the third type is lower back injury resulting from poor disc nourishment while sitting in an off-road vehicle (skid-steer loader, earthmover, scraper, etc.) for long periods, with the spine vibrated by movement over rough terrain. This may lead to permanent damage to tissues in the spine. 

An example rehabilitation programme is given in Fig. 12.2 for an enrolled nurse with a sprain/strain back injury. 

Benefits can be evaluated to determine whether the school system is providing a sufficient package for anployees. For example, if adequate healthcare insurance is not provided, the stage could be set for an employee to report an injury that occurred at home as actually occurring at work in order for it to be compensated through workers compensation. Vacation time could also be an issue. If sufficient vacation time is not provided, an anployee might fraudulently report a back injury in order to receive time away from work. 

Examples Specifying a quieter design of machine when ordering replacement equipment. Use of a wheeled manhole lifter to replace hand hooks or other hand tools brings gains in productivity as well as minimising the chance of a back injury. 

For example, suppose that you have a worker who received a back injury from lifting 1501b, a job that he or she performs two times a week. For a cost of 10,000, the injury would never occur again. Would you think that the cost to fix the situation would be worth the prevention of an injury First of all what employer would allow an employee to lift such a large load Simply allowing this practice is a risk in itself. With that said, let us consider our options. 

Let s take an example. An extremely overweight worker with prior back injuries continues to tap into the company s workers compensation fund every few years because of recurring back problems. Recommendations to prevent recurrence taken from incident investigations and given to the steering committee included the following ... 

Let s look at the back injury example. If the steering committee analyzes information and determines that back injuries are a problem at your company, the committee should consider the following factors during the analysis ... 

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