Ergonomic hazard identification and abatement: how to do it right.

Your ergonomics team is chosen, trained and ready to make ergonomic improvements. But how to begin? Start by taking an inventory of the ergonomic risks of all jobs and map out goals and objectives to formulate a plan. A successful plan identifies factors increasing ergonomics injury risk potential, helps with the solutions for abatement and monitors long-term effectiveness of changes. Developing a plan also defines budget requirements to assess and "fix" risks, and allocates time necessary for the process.

Identifying Ergonomic Risks

Many techniques are used to analyze workplace ergonomics. These include musculoskeletal stress surveys, injury/illness surveys and ergonomic risk factor reviews.

Musculoskeletal stress surveys highlight trends and potential workplace problems, predict ergonomic risk, establish baseline levels of musculoskeletal stress and assess the effectiveness of workplace changes.

Symptom surveys help employees describe symptoms of pain and/or discomfort experienced on the job. Response choices allow respondents to indicate the frequency and severity of complaints on a consistent scale. This facilitates summary and comparison of data. For objectivity, employees must answer surveys honestly, without fear of negative actions based on their responses. Providing a detailed explanation of the purpose of the survey encourages honesty so intervention is developed.

Injury-illness surveys red-flag potential problems in specific departments and jobs; determine the historical magnitude and cost of musculoskeletal injuries; and indicate the potential future cost of ergonomics illnesses and injuries if no improvements are made.

Evidence of workplace ergonomics problems can be found in medical, safety and insurance records. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires all jobs to be recorded on its Log and Summary of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (Form 200). Other sources for injury history include plant medical records, workers' compensation reports, and safety and accident reports. Payroll records can be used to show trends of turnover rates and absentee rates, both factors associated with high physical stress jobs.

The incidence of new cases recorded during a specified period of time are often cited for a particular disorder. This may be determined by job, department, facility or company-wide data. Comparisons between various jobs are made by converting the incidence data into incidence rates or the percentage of workers experiencing the disorder. The incidence rate is generally expressed as the number of cases/100 workers/year. An assumption of 2000 hr/employee/year is often made when data on the actual number of hours worked isn't available. The formula for calculating an incidence rate is as follows:

Incidence rate = number of new cases/year x 2000 work hr / hr worked(*) = number of cases/100 workers/year

* total for employees on the same job or in same department.

This information is summarized for inclusion on the overall ergonomics evaluation.

Ergonomics checklists organize the procedure of assessing workplace ergonomics and pinpoint situations that present injury potential.

In general, the checklist covers the major risk factors of physical stress, force, posture and repetitiveness. This list is most effective if it is appropriate to the types of workstations, equipment, tools and human body parts in use on the jobs.

A checklist may require a yes/no response indicating the presence or absence of a specific potential stress/risk factor. In this case, specific criteria is provided to incorporate cutoff guidelines for potential stressors. Other checklists provide systematic methods for recording the existence, magnitude and nature of each hazard to predict risk of injury.

Focused facility walk-throughs organize the ergonomics process and clarify further assessment needs. Interviewing employees and supervisors provides insight into the nature of a job, specific constraints on its performance, special circumstances and a history of the different ways a job has been performed. Video capture of employees on the job may be collected to allow subsequent reviews and analysis of job requirements during the solution development process.

Finding a Solution

Once potential ergonomics problems are identified, solutions must be found. Hazard abatement methods are often categorized according to the nature of the control.

* Engineering controls are used to redesign workstations, tools or equipment to improve the fit between the employee and the job. This can be the most expensive solution, but proves to be the greatest return on investment.

* Work practices are procedures for proper work technique, employee training and conditioning, regular monitoring, feedback, maintenance, adjustments and modification.

* Administrative controls include breaks and job rotation.

* Personal protective equipment helps prevent or reduce ergonomic exposures.

Often, multiple solution alternatives are available for problems with varying levels of effectiveness. For example, an engineering solution may provide complete hazard elimination but it may be too costly and impractical. Work practice or administrative alternatives are a viable option if exposure is brought down to acceptable levels for the user population. In other circumstances, an engineering solution may be necessary but requires time and planning to implement. In this case, a less effective solution may provide temporary improvement to the current situation.

The audit phase of an ergonomics process allows company management to understand the issues associated with all jobs and provides greater capability at a reduced cost. The reduced costs are recognized through increased productivity and quality, and in reduced workers' compensation, medical claims, lost work time and a better management/labor environment.