Case Study 2: When my job breaks my back: shouldering the burden of work-related musculoskeletal disorders
By Pia Markkanen, David Kriebel, Joel Tickner, and Molly M. Jacobs
[Download PDF] 23 pages
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a serious public health concern. Our case study on back injuries and other MSDs among health care workers, hotel housekeepers, and poultry processing workers illustrates how badly MSDs can disable us and affect our everyday well-being both at work and outside our work.
The US regulatory history on protecting workers from MSDs is perhaps the most tumultuous in the world. Yet a decade after the repeal of OSHA’s Ergonomics Standard, MSDs remain one of the leading causes of lost work time and an extremely burdensome “cost of doing business” with impacts felt throughout the economy and the health care system.
A back injury can force a choice between working in pain
or not working at all.
Successful safe patient handling legislations and programs in several states are highlighting cost-effective paths forward to protect healthcare workers from back injuries. Similar sector-specific initiatives–such as safe patient handling programs in health care– are needed to improve ergonomics in those industries where the MSD burden is heaviest.
Additional Resources
- Subcommittee Hearing - Safe Patient Handling & Lifting Standards for a Safer American Workforce. U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. May 11, 2010.
- Creating Luxury, Enduring Pain: How Hotel Work is Hurting Housekeepers. Hotel Workers Rising, 2006.
- Chronology of OSHA’s Ergonomics Standard and the Business Campaign Against it.AFL-CIO, Department of Occupational Safety and Health, 2004
- Lipscomb, HJ, Dement, JM, Epling, CA, et al. Are we failing vulnerable workers? The case of black women in poultry processing in rural North Carolina. New Solutions 2007;17(1-2): 17-40.
- Silverstein, B, Evanoff, B. Musculoskeletal Disorders. In: Levy B, Wegman D, Baron S, Sokas R, (Eds.) Occupational and Environmental Health: Recognizing and Preventing Disease and Injury. 5th edition. Philadelphia (PA): Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. 2006. 488-516. Also available in the new 6th edition. 2010. 335-365
- Hudson, A. Injured Nurse Story #2: Preventable. In: Charney W, Hudson A, (Eds.) Back Injury among Healthcare Workers: Causes, Solutions, and Impacts. Washington DC: Lewis Publishers. 2004. 19-26.
