Itasca, IL — Taking easy steps earlier than work begins can help curb job-related musculoskeletal issues.
Multiple experts reiterated that message on June 13 throughout the National Safety Council MSD Solutions Lab’s third annual digital Workplace Safety Summit.
As the lab goals to reduce work-related MSDs by rising entry to security finest practices and expertise – partially by dedication to its free MSD Pledge – member organizations tout the success of small however impactful actions to help hold workers secure. These embrace job planning, worksite evaluation and stretching.
“There’s the $5 fix, there’s a $5,000 fix and there’s a $5 million fix,” bodily therapist Dustin Reinbold mentioned in a video performed throughout the occasion. “And if you just spend some time with the employees, with your supervisors, and talk to them, you can usually find lots of $5 fixes out there that can make a real difference.”
Reinbold works alongside workers at Schneider Electric, one of many 200-plus organizations which have signed the pledge. That determine stood at 16 when the MSD Solutions Lab launched the pledge in 2022.
MSDs embrace tendinitis, again strains and sprains, and carpal tunnel syndrome. They’re the commonest office damage and stay the main explanation for employee incapacity, early retirement and limitations to gainful employment.
“These injuries may not take someone’s life,” Paul Vincent, govt vp of office apply at NSC, mentioned throughout the occasion, “but they do take someone’s ability to enjoy their hobbies or play with their kids. These are not small losses, and we can’t afford to overlook them as a community, because not only do these injuries impact workers, but their families, employers and also communities.”
Dana Schultz, human assets and security supervisor at Superior Tube Products, mentioned her group has decreased MSD accidents almost 90% since signing the pledge.
One of its options, the MSD Solutions Index, presents members details about different contributors’ MSD prevention efforts. Schultz credit the software for serving to Superior Tube in its mission to mitigate accidents associated to repetitive movement, heavy lifting and awkward postures that may be widespread throughout metal tubing fabrication.
“You get access to companies all across the country that are in different stages of their safety program,” Schultz mentioned.
Added Sarah Ischer, senior program supervisor for the MSD Solutions Lab: “When an organization joins the pledge community, they’re truly joining a community that they can share ideas with, network, benchmark and really understand what they can do to make their workplaces safer.”
Further, NSC introduced it has awarded almost $265,000 by its Research to Solutions and MSD Solutions Pilot Grant packages.
In a press launch, NSC President and CEO Lorraine M. Martin mentioned by the expansion of the pledge “and awarding grants to some of the nation’s top innovators, we are one step closer to helping workers everywhere lead healthier, fuller, MSD-free lives.”
Grant recipients shall be in a position to current security findings on the 2025 NSC Safety Congress & Expo in Denver or one other occasion in 2025.
