Industrial Disease - Repetitive Strain Injuries
New online tool to help prevent MSDs at work
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in association with the Health and Safety Laboratory have developed a new downloadable tool to help businesses reduce the likelihood of their employees suffering from musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) of the upper limbs associated with repetitive tasks.
The move is good news for thousands of sufferers of industrial illnesses caused by repetitive tasks such as working on production lines or the damage of Vibration White Finger associated with the use of hand tools. MSDs are the most common occupational illness in Britain, affecting more than 500,000 people every year. These victims of industrial related illnesses and MSD damage could represent a massive increase in the number of compensation claims made for accidents and illness caused by work related activity, and any tool that could help to reduce this number has been welcomed by both large and small businesses alike.
The Assessment of Repetitive Tasks (ART) tool can identify where the significant risks lie, suggest where to focus risk reduction measures and help to prioritise improvements. It could also be a powerful tool for those seeking compensation for industrial injury if their company has not embraced the tool as part of their ongoing duty of care towards employees and obligations on risk management and safety at work.
Jeremy Ferreira, Senior Ergonomist at the Health and Safety Laboratory said that the tool would make it much easier to determine where the risks lie and what measures employers should take to minimise those risks. “Assessing quick, repetitive movements of the arms and hands can be more difficult than assessing manual handling operations like heavy lifting,” he explained. “Often actions to reduce MSDs caused by repetitive tasks are incredibly simple, yet are overlooked by employers because the risks are not so readily recognised,” he continued.
The cost of MSDs to UK business is considerable. The HSE estimate that 1.01 million people are currently affected each year, resulting in 11.6 million lost working days due to MSDs every year. Factor into that equation the financial cost to companies facing compensation claims for MSDs, and you have a hidden but huge problem for UK industries. Compulsory ergonomic and Health and Safety assessment has done much to alleviate the problem in situations such as offices, but in more industrial complexes, the occurrence of MSDs is on the rise as more people work in environments that harbour the conditions to develop this kind of injury. Miners and those working in heavy industry have long known about the effects of MSDs such as Vibration White Finger and Arthritis of the knees, but the scale of the problem has not really been fully addressed until now.
With no win, no fee litigation for accidents at work and industrial injury on the rise, any tool to ensure that businesses take a long, hard look at the potential within their workplace for MSD injury and minimise the risks is to be welcomed, not least by the UK economy. The new ART tool is available as a download from the HSE website or as a hard copy publication.
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