Interviews with safety professionals who work in the construction industry reveal that ergonomics is not usually a part of safety training, audits or accident investigations in their companies. There are many practical reasons cited for this absence. However, statistics show that there is a high incidence of sprains, strains and other work related soft tissue injuries to construction workers. This article identifies several simple and practical ergonomic practices that have been used successfully on specific construction sites.
Ergonomics in manufacturing, offices and laboratories makes sense. But construction work is different because…
"The site is changing from day to day. So (investments in) ergonomics don't last and just disappear."
"Most workers on our projects are contractors. They're on the site for a while and then move on. We don't directly control their equipment or their training."
"Most of the work is below knee level or above shoulder height. What can you do?"
"We hire people to work a job. We only have them for a few months. Ergonomics is about preventing cumulative trauma. We inherit the cumulative trauma from their past jobs so ergonomics doesn't help."
"The (general contractor) provided equipment to take some of the strain out of the drywall job, but it slowed (the drywall contractors) down so they quit using it."
The concerns listed above were expressed by safety professionals who work in the construction industry. These professionals are expert proponents of safety procedures to prevent potentially fatal falls, trenching collapse, crushing injuries, explosions and confined space emergencies. They have all had basic or advanced courses in ergonomics. And, they want to prevent the incidents of back strain, rotator cuff injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome and other soft tissue injuries that are reported at the work site. But the ergonomic analysis and practices that work well in manufacturing, offices and laboratories, don't seem to apply to construction.
However, some safety professionals have successfully adapted the principles of ergonomics to benefit both the construction workforce and the bottom line. Their advice is to keep it simple, use readily available equipment to its best advantage, and provide training that is practical and focused.
This article will lay out a simplified, low budget approach to ergonomics that has been successfully applied to a variety of crafts on construction sites.
The goal of ergonomics on the worksite is to prevent soft tissue injures to muscles, tendons, joints and nerves. The key to preventing these injuries is to minimize physical force on the body; avoid awkward postures; and reduce fatigue caused by highly repetitive and prolonged static exertions.
Many ergonomic training programs start by defining ergonomics as "Making the job fit the worker, not the other way around." or "Making tools and equipment user friendly." But these definitions are vague and hard for employees to put into practice.
