A Pain in the Neck‌or Back or Wrist By Kady Olson WSC Senior Safety Manager
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espite not having their own OSHA standard, ergonomic hazards have garnered attention from employers all over the country. Perhaps this is because ergonomic hazards such as repetitive motion and overexertion are the number one cause of injuries in the workplace with over 300,400 injuries per year1. Maybe it is because the average workers’ com-
12 Winter 2019
pensation claim for a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) caused by ergonomic hazards averages $30,0001. Either way, employers are realizing the potential impact of poor ergonomics in their workplaces on both employee morale and the bottom line. There is a huge financial benefit to reducing ergonomic risks in the workplace, but where do you start?
wisconsinsafetyvoice.org | Workplace Safety
Although it has been in the works for several years, there still is no OSHA standard on controlling ergonomic hazards in the workplace like many of the other key players in workplace injuries like electrical hazards or machine guarding. In the absence of an official standard, OSHA created the National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics which has taken best practices from
