Good body alignment and tools that minimize fatigue and discomfort make you more productive, efficient and safe at work. They are part of the applied science called ergonomics that can get short shrift in a safety program. Strains and sprains left unattended often grow into more severe injuries. That means longer loss days and insurance claims. Recognizing the value and necessity of good ergonomics for workers will go a long way to a healthier workforce.

OSHA tracks reported workplace ergonomic injuries. According to Gary Orr, an ergonomist in OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, Office of Health Enforcement, “The overall number of musculoskeletal disorders is decreasing. That said, using the North American Industrial Classification Code [Bureau of Labor Statistics], the rates among specialty contractors (238210), including electrical, are fairly high.” That includes injuries in warehouses.

Orr shared that ergonomic injuries fall into three large body groups: upper extremities (fingers to shoulders), the back and lower extremities (including the hip, thigh, ankle and feet). 

“When you cut your hand, you take immediate action. You apply antibiotic cream, keep the wound clean and bandaged. It will heal over in a few days,” he said. “That does not always happen when you pull a muscle. A sprain or strain might take a couple of weeks’ recovery. If you stretch a tendon too far and tear it, you will need surgery and a longer recovery. We stress to employers [that] they stress to their employees early reporting.”

Maria Silva-Palacios, safety program manager for Los Angeles­based HerbaLife Nutrition, has been an ergonomics advocate for much of her career. She is the author of “Safe Zone: Cultivating Engagement One Leader at a Time,” which delves into her time supporting good ergonomics.

“In my 20 years with Southern California Edison, I was part of a company effort to reduce employee injuries,” she said. “Strains and sprains were always number one, representing 60%–80% of injuries.”

Silva-Palacios explained that all muscles and joints work together in a kinetic chain: “For instance, the [lumbar spine] supports your upper body [and] distributes body weight. Our joints and muscles propel us into whatever movement that we execute.”

Ignoring pain is not good policy

Reporting an ergonomic injury before it gets worse is doing yourself and your employer a favor.

“Pain is a precursor to injury. An ergonomic injury overlooked, minimized [and] not correctly treated is a body out of whack. Especially in the utility world, if pain comes along, it is minimized, just part of the job. Unaddressed strains or sprains can become chronic, debilitating,” Silva-Palacios said. 

Carpal tunnel syndrome, a common musculoskeletal injury, is caused by compression of a major nerve in the wrist and affects more than office workers typing at a keyboard. The numbness and tingling that result can interfere with daily activities, Orr said. 

“Back pain is another common occurrence and indicates a back injury. It often gets unreported until someone has difficulty walking or standing up straight. You need to report an ergonomic injury right away,” he said.

Dealing with ergonomics in the office can be straightforward and successful, whether adjusting a desk or providing a computer mouse, Silva-Palacios shared. However, “addressing ergonomics for utility lineman is far more complicated.”

Utility and other contractors will find themselves climbing, reaching overhead and using hand tools to bend and cut.

“Most employees do not use proper technique when performing these activities,” Silva-Palacios said. “They might be up in a bucket framing a cross-arm. Strict clearance rules make it difficult to boom up a little higher to work at a comfortable 90-degree angle. Traditional ergonomics cannot be easily applied.”

   

During her time at Southern California Edison, the company instituted its Industrial Athlete program. 

“We would assess the linemen, measuring their flexibility, mobility and strength, then assign and prescribe routines to follow. If linemen found themselves in awkward positions for longer periods of time, their bodies could better accommodate the position,” she said.

Tim Pottorff has been an ergonomist for 32 years. After two-plus decades at Zurich Insurance (North America), Schaumburg, Ill., he founded QP3 ErgoSystems LLC, Dundee, Ill. He was named assistant administrator of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) Ergonomics Practice Specialty, which provides education, expertise and outreach on ergonomic practices and helps members develop an ergonomics component within their safety programs.

“When a person works through, [rather than] seriously attending to an injury, you have a much lower chance of a full recovery than if a person gets immediate attention,” Pottorff said. “There’s a professor at Temple University, Dr. Mary F. Barbe, a cellular biologist. She shared safety professionals and supervision management should be aware of the need to address inflammation and pain within six weeks of onset of those symptoms to really have a successful chance of a full recovery.”

An old issue with new solutions

Ergonomics has been discussed and addressed for decades. Programs within companies have come and gone, or stayed “on the books” but lacked engagement. That got Silva­-Palacios thinking and formed her dissertation, and later became the basis for her book. She interviewed lineworkers with the least participation rate in their company’s safety program and the highest musculoskeletal strain and sprain injury rate—80%.

“This low engagement did not surprise me. I’ll never forget one of the guys I interviewed [who] shared they were allotted 30 minutes to conduct their movement stretches before work. Fifteen minutes in, a foreman says, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Hurry up. Get out to your truck.’ So now there was a rush. What does that say about ergonomic safety? It’s disposable? That is confusing to the employee.”

Pottorff added that pressures to meet deadlines or quotas should be discussed. Proper safety cannot be sacrificed. Sprains and strains are injuries. They represent a sizable percentage of all injuries on the job and can get expensive.

   

“Soft tissue ergonomic claims don’t usually hit the deductible [company deductibles can range $250,000–$1 million]. The average claim for a lost workday is about $25,000,” he said. “So, the insurance company might be managing the claim and writing a check for expenses that includes medical treatment, therapy sessions and payments injured workers receive when they are unable to work. But that’s not the insurance company’s money. The client paying must put money into a reserve. The insurance company pulls money from that reserve to pay for claims.” 

Company earnings fund the reserve and must replenish it when it’s tapped. That can come as an inconvenient fact and is sometimes forgotten.

Insurance companies are getting better with classifying ergonomic injuries.

“We have better methodologies for assessing workplace upper extremity risks, things like a strain index,” Pottorff said. “We have fatigue failure models from a lifting standpoint, and a revised NIOSH Lifting Equation,” which calculates the risk for back injuries from two-handed lifting tasks. 

“Today we look at work heights and reach distances. The National Center for Health Statistics has published reference tables on the distribution of various body measurements for the U.S. population (anthropometric data),” he said.

Reportability

Prior to 2001, OSHA had an ergonomic standard. Although Congress rescinded it, that did not eliminate OSHA looking at ergonomics, and a wealth of information and best practices remain. It simply barred OSHA from issuing another rule that is the same or substantially similar to the 2000 rule without Congress’ permission.

“The standard as it existed was really what we call a ‘programmatic standard,’ in that it was asking employers to have an ergonomic component within their safety program looking at the things that would cause musculoskeletal disorders,” Orr said.

Without a standard, some issues remain if poor ergonomics is at the root of an injury, he explained.

“OSHA addresses safety areas without a standard through Section 5(a)(1), normally called the General Duty Clause,” he said. “It requires an employer to provide a safe and healthy workplace.”

   

According to Orr, since Section 5(a)(1) is not a standard, OSHA’s burden is higher to call out harmful situations (such as ergonomics) within the workplace. 

“You must ask the questions: Is there a hazard in this industry with this job? Should the employer have known about that? Is it causing serious injuries, and is there feasible abatement?” he said. “A standard gives clear guidance to the employer. We must do a considerable amount of work when it is a 5(a)(1).”

“Recordable incidents go on the OSHA log. That is followed by an inspector visit. With recorded incidents of sprains and strains, there will be the question if they were the result of ergonomic issues,” Orr said. “Some employers are of the opinion that if it’s not a comp case, it’s not OSHA recordable.”

A recordable injury on the OSHA 300 log is one that has received more than first aid, has resulted in lost workdays, or restricted or resulted in a transfer of duties. 

“In a lot of states, upper extremity types of issues like carpal tunnel are not compensable. That does not mean they are not recordable,” he said.

Of note, certain states, such as California and Minnesota, have their own ergonomics standard.

A successful program

All three ergonomists find a successful
safety program is one that is employee-­owned and supported from the top down. Employees should be free to share concerns. That said, be safety ambassadors. Implement a strength program and a stretching and mobility program for workers to minimize sprains and strains. Train engineers and supervisors on ergonomics. And know that good programs are incremental—they improve over time.

In this era of a lack of skilled labor and increased productivity, give employees  the support to keep them “in good standing.”

stock.adobe.com / Syda Productions // Photograph courtesy of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration