Industrial ERG

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Running Head: Unit VII

1

Running Head: Unit VII

Unit VII Assignment

In general, the workstation described as a newspaper delivery-man is not ergonomically safe. When subjected to the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) yielded results that the workstation needs an Action Level 3 intervention with a RULA score of 5. The tasks and the risk exposures to Musculoskeletal Disorders and other ailments such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome indicate that this workstation predisposes an employee to poor posture and risk of the injuries outlined. The particular risk factors, such as heavy-lifting and twisting of forearms, need to be prevented so that they do not result in significant injuries (Schneid, 2014).

The results from the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) augment the results from the RULA. More specifically, the REBA score for this workstation was 8, suggesting a high-risk level for significant body injuries, especially as they pertain to the heavy lifting of the newspaper bundles. Therefore, immediate action is required to reduce the newspaper workers' bodily injuries that may result from continuous exposure to heavy lifting and maintaining poor body posture (Schneid, 2014).

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Recommendations

OSHA has come up with and enforced various industry-specific standards to encourage employers to have ergonomic considerations when designing work stations for their employees. Separately, various industries have proactively implemented ergonomic solutions at their facilities to make them safer and abate Musculoskeletal Disorder Injury risks for their workers. Besides, OSHA has offered guidelines that entail recommendations, as well as best practices and lessons learned in order to keep workstations ergonomic-friendly for the workers. These recommendations are meant to enable organizations to recognize and control industry-specific ergonomics-related risk factors (Ho, 2017).

Examples of these guidelines include the Solutions for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Foundries. This is contained in OSHA Publication 3465 of 2012. This publication contains recommendations for foundries that enhance the level of awareness of the risk factors related to ergonomics as well as recommendations to reduce muscle fatigue and improve employee productivity amongst the workers. Also, OSHA published Guidelines for Nursing Homes: Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders. These guidelines are specific to nursing homes and help healthcare workers in these facilities alleviate the frequency and severity of possible work-related MSDs (OSHA, 2020).

Additionally, in 2012, OSHA published the Guidelines for Retail Grocery Stores: Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders. This publication contained recommendations for such things as changing equipment as designing workstations for workers in grocery stores. Similarly, these recommendations are intended to reduce the worker’s exposure to MSDs. Besides, the Ergonomics eTool: Solutions for Electrical Contractors by OSHA describes the common hazards that electrical contractors are susceptible to in their line of duty as well as offering solutions for these hazards (OSHA, 2020).

Over and above the industry-specific recommendations that OSHA has provided to make workstations ergonomically sound, OSHA encourages employers to implement an ergonomic process. For such a process to be effective, management support in terms of definite goals and proper communication about the process is required. Also, the process should involve the employees and identify all the problems related to MSDs caused by the workstation. An essential element of this ergonomic process is the evaluation of the progress of the implementation and making adjustments as necessary (OSHA, 2020).

OSHA recommendations have significantly helped inform ergonomic considerations for various workstations. OSHA remains adequately funded by the U/S Federal government and has compliance officials to ensure that workstations remain safe and healthy for workers. Going into the future, OSHA shall need to continue its enforcement efforts. In order to make this enforcement effective, then OSHA shall need to draw strong management commitment by the employers and ensure relevant policies, as well as procedures for training for adherence to these policies, are in place (Ho, 2017).

References

Ho, J. (2017). OSHA and Ergonomics: The Past, Present, and Future. EHS Today. Retrieved from https://www.ehstoday.com/standards/osha/article/21919092/osha-and-ergonomics-the-past-present-and-future.

OSHA. (2020). Ergonomics: Solutions to Control Hazards. OSHA. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/ergonomics/controlhazards.html#guidelines.

Schneid, D, T. (2014). Workplace Safety and Health: Assessing Current Practices and Promoting Change in the Profession. CRC Press.