Ergonomics-related injury cases on the rise
SIBU: The number of cases involving injuries related to ergonomics such as musculoskeletal disorders among workers in the country is increasing.
Citing the Social Security Organisation (Socso)’s statistics, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye noted that in 2013 alone, the number of ergonomics-related cases reached 694 of the total 2,630 reported cases.
“It means that for every four cases reported to Socso, one is related to musculoskeletal disorders. However, many of these cases are acute injuries. If we look at chronic musculoskeletal cases, we would find that there are 40 cases (out of 121 occupational disease cases) paid by Socso in 2009.
“This number has been rising steadily over the years, where in 2014, 153 out of 605 occupational diseases cases paid by Socso were ergonomics,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Lee explained that musculoskeletal disorders could be acute – occurring suddenly like due to accidents; or chronic – happening due to prolonged exposure to trauma.
“For the occupational health issues, previously some of the ‘hot issues’ were those related to chemical exposure and noise at the workplace. However we find that there is an increasing number of injuries related to ergonomics such as musculoskeletal disorders.”
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are collective and descriptive symptoms caused or aggravated by work and characterised by discomfort, impairment, disability or persistent pain in joints, muscles, tendons and other soft tissues. Examples of musculoskeletal disorders are back pains, slipped disks, carpal tunnel syndrome and stiff joints.
In this regard, Lee also observed that compensations for ergonomics-related diseases are generally higher than those for other occupational diseases.
A study conducted by Niosh Ergonomics Centre of Excellence suggests that the cost of permanent disability compensation for occupational disease associated with ergonomics is RM25,313 per case, versus the present’s average compensation of RM 22,841 per case, he pointed out.
It is also noted that the total amount of compensations had increased from RM1.04 million in 2009 to RM1.94 million in 2014.
“The study also shows the location of the main injury is on the back (51.2 per cent), followed by the hips (28.86 per cent).
“This suggests that four out of five of ergonomics-related occupational disease usually strike the waist and the back,” he said.
On awareness of the subject of ergonomics among employers and employees, Lee noted that in general, the level had increased.
He attributed this to the collective efforts by Niosh, Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Dosh) and Socso, which were better than they were five or 10 years ago.
“Still, the main issue here is about the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders.
“Due to many factors such as an ageing workforce, equipment designs that are not according to the worker’s physical
capabilities and lack of specific legislations and standards regarding ergonomics, many companies find it difficult to fully implement ergonomics at the workplace,” he pointed out.
He said many people think that ergonomics are only related to ‘selecting the best chairs for their workers’, training the workers on proper and correct ways to lift good, or having proper seating and standing postures.
“In fact, ergonomics itself has many disciplines – the three major ones are physical ergonomics, mental ergonomics and organisational ergonomics,” stressed Lee.
“These three major domains give us a lot of opportunities to address ergonomics issues at work such as workstations/tasks/tools designs, environmental assessment, human error analysis, and ergonomics management system.”
