(Newswire.net — October 2, 2018) — With work-related injuries on the decline according to the United States Department of Labor, injuries due to manual handling still account for 20% of lost working days. Second only to the common cold, injuries due to overreaching, lifting incorrectly and indeed lifting loads that are too heavy still seem to be prevalent in America’s workplaces. Predominantly, these manual handling injuries affect the spine.
The problem is common world-wide and statistics are broadly very similar everywhere. This has led to an increase in hospitals specifically aimed at helping people with back pain and more serious problems. Spain’s Barcelona Spine Centre, which is a back and spine institute dedicated to non-invasive and ADR disc replacement surgery, is a good example of the increase in dedicated back injury centers. And despite the decrease in manual handling injuries, this type of injury is still costing America’s businesses a small fortune.
Occupations most at risk from back injury
As one might expect manual handling injuries are suffered by those that lift objects for a living. Here are the top five occupations that generated over 20,000 lost working days collectively.
- Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers – 63,790
- Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers – 48,710
- Janitors and cleaners (maids excepted) – 36,470
- Nursing assistants – 36,340
- Police and sheriff’s patrol officers – 28,740
What can American businesses do to stop back pain from hurting their profits?
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), preventing manual handling in the workplace consists in more than just teaching lifting techniques.
Here are some of the tips they recommend:
- Let the machines do the work: Automating the lifting process takes the stress and the risk out of back damaging injuries. There is a range of equipment that can be used for this process such as simple dollies and carts to more advanced lift tables, conveyors, and vacuum lift assist devices, winches and hoists. The less lifting, the less chance of injury.
- Improved workflow design: Taking ergonomics into the workplace could save lost sick days. This involves designing workflow to minimize lifting and protecting employees from spinal injury. When combined with good lifting equipment, these two solutions are a good place to start, especially if the business has issues with lost work time due to manual handling injuries.
- Training: Training in manual handling in the workplace features heavily in preventing lost time due to injuries. This, more than anything else, will protect employees from spinal injury or similar injuries that will result in lost work days.
- Job Hazard Analysis: For each task employees perform a job, hazard analysis should be carried out. This is the cornerstone for prevention of workplace injuries.
Bring in the experts
If in doubt, businesses should bring in dedicated professionals to help improve their safety profile. The investment generally results in fewer work days lost due to manual handling injuries and a better working morale. All of this adds up to better productivity and greater profits.
Businesses are becoming aware of the benefits of workplace safety as incident rates drop consistently year after year. That said, there is still a long way to go before a back and spine institute starts to run out of patients.