There is little doubt and lots of reason to believe that musculoskeletal discorders (MSDs) and injuuires are prevalent in the construction trades.  But what we all know is that we have not had a blind eye to this over the last 30 to 40 years.

Much progress has been made in the areas of safety on construction sites so that the numbers of on-site injuries and incidents have been greatly reduced, including those serious incidents that cause major injuries or death. However, workers being “hurt” (as opposed to “injured”)  on the job continues to be an issue of productivity on many job sites.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Stuart Cole via a Creative Commons license] While senior executives may be the furthest from the floor of a worksite, their engagement is safety will make or break the entire safety protocol at a company. There are some accountabilities that senior managements should embrace if safety is truly to be top priority at a company.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Stuart Cole via a Creative Commons license]

When we mean “hurt,” we can mean those little sprains and strains to various parts of the body that keep workers from being 100 percent, but often do not keep them away from work. While we often think these kinds of things just happen as part of the job, the bottom line is these kinds of “hurts” can add up in lost productivity and eventually in lost work time as these workers might compensate for the “hurt” with different movements and actions that may put them at risk for suffering another similar injury in another part of the body.

MSDs can be chronic or congenital, and these issues can dramatically affect the productivity and impact of a worker or an entire workforce on a job site. And with decreased productivity, there is a chance that the construction project may not be done on time or on budget. But believe it or not, these little “hurts” and various MSDs are not as unavoidable nor as un-preventable as you may think. The biggest tool you can have is education, and that was provided in a a recent article from the January 2016 issue of Professional Safety magazine.

In this article. co-authored by Sang Choi, Lu Yuan and James Borchardt, the authors looked into lots of surveys and research about incidents among the construction trades, pointing out MSDs that seem to take root in certain trades and the most common musculoskeletal injuries that seem to occur among the various trades. The authors broke all the reports down into seven trade groups and explained where and why the most common injuries occurred in each of the trades. This can be valuable information for a safety officer at a construction site, who may not be able to monitor all the different tradesmen on a site at the same time and thus may not be privy to all of the activities that these tradesmen do to perform their jobs well.

Education is the first step. Next comes action that is consistent with the education. In other words, once you understand the perils and risks of the various tradesmen, you can then take a more focused approach to potentially preventing more of these MSDs from occurring.There are several ways that a worksite can address a prevention initiative, and it can even incorporate more than one of these paths at a time. I will give a brief description of each, and ask you to look up the article online and read more detail yourself.

  1. Ergonomics: This has to do wtih posture and right body positioning and movement. This can be modifying tools or providing more automation (such as lifting equipment) as examples.
  2. Process: How a job is done can make a huge difference. For example, if you have tradesmen who struggle with shoulder trouble because of working with their arms above their heads for extended periods, maybe having a mechanical lift device of some kind so a worker can get closer to the work and help relieve the stress on the shoulders.
  3. Engineering: This is where prevention through design (PTD) comes in.
  4. Hand Tools: Ergonomic hand tools or those with some kind of automation can greatly reduce MSDs by putting workers in more “neutral” positions and postures that reduce strain on various muscles and joints. These kinds of tools can be much more expensive than standard alternatives, but the extra cost could easily be offset by the reduction in lost time due to back injuries or other ailments.
  5. Exercise: Several studies have shown that on-site pre-work stretching and exercise programs (even 10 minutes at the start of a shift) improves flexibility in worker, improved muscle endurance and is seen to decrease the risk of MSDs on the work site. What works for world-class athletes can work for world-class construction workers as well!

Having at least a passing commitment to creating a safer worksite can make the difference between a healthy, productive workforce, and one that costs much more money in lost-time and workers compensation claims, not to mention the cost of hiriing and training new workers to replace the injured. Effective safety can take a serious investment, but an investment in workers is an investment in the company – and it’s an investment that can have a huge ROI in both time and money.