Initial Response’s Blog

A few month ago, in the article “What the Boy Scouts Teach us About Safety Training,” I advocated employee safety training based on the Boy Scout model that requires a demonstration of proficiency rather than passive attendance in a training class.Recently, I was reviewing some Boy Scout merit bade requirements and was struck by something many of them had in common. The first requirement for most merit badges is to explain the hazards relative to the subject of the merit badge and the precautions that should be taken and first aid procedures that should be followed to address those hazards.

For example, the first requirement of the Snow Sports merit badge is: “ Discuss winter sports safety and show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while skiing or riding, including hypothermia, frostbite, shock, dehydration, sunburn fractures, bruises, sprains and strains.” Similarly, the first requirement of the Cooking merit badge stipulates that candidates ”review with your counselor the injuries that might arise from cooking, including burns and scalds, and the proper treatment.” The Electronics merit badge requires that the candidate “describe the safety precautions you must exercise when using, building, altering or repairing electronic devices.”

The Scouts really have kept up with the times and there is even a Composite Materials merit badge. The first two requirements of the badge are: “Explain the precautions that must be taken when handling, storing and disposing of resins, reinforcements and other materials used in composites. Include in your discussion the importance of health, safety and environmental responsibility and awareness.” and “Describe what a material safety data sheet (MSDS) is and tell why it is used.”

These requirements place technically sophisticated demands on youngsters, and it struck me as interesting that the safety component of the merit badges were among the first requirements, not buried some where at the bottom of the requirements.

I saw a lesson here. Shouldn’t we too be incorporating a similar approach when it comes to employee protection? Shouldn’t we ensure that as the first step of each task they undertake, employees identify the potential hazards to which they might be exposed and implement the necessary precautions to protect themselves from those hazards.

If the Boy Scouts can do it, why can’t all American employers make safety tops on the list of job tasks?

http://www.occupationalhazards.com/News/Article/79636/More_Lessons_from_the_Boy_Scouts.aspx

Visit OSHA’s On-site Consultation Program Web page to get valuable information on how this program helps you to provide a safe working environment for your employees. The service is provided only at your request and is delivered at no cost. Employers who use the service to develop and operate an exemplary safety and health management system may also qualify to participate in the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP). For additional information, visit our Web link at http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness/index.html.

On Feb. 6, OSHA unveiled a new workplace safety and health guidance document that will help employers prepare for an influenza pandemic. Developed in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for an Influenza Pandemic provides general guidance for all types of workplaces, describes the differences between seasonal, avian and pandemic influenza, and presents information on the nature of a potential pandemic, how the virus is likely to spread and how exposure is likely to occur.

Led by Judith Ricci, Sc.D., MS, of Caremark Rx Inc., the researchers analyzed data from a nationwide study of the relationship between health and productivity at work. The study examined the effects of fatigue on health-related absenteeism and “presenteeism,” or days the employee was at work but performing at less than full capacity because of health reasons.

Of the nearly 29,000 employed adults interviewed, 38 percent said they had experienced “low levels of energy, poor sleep or a feeling of fatigue” during the past 2 weeks. Total lost productive time averaged 5.6 hours per week for workers with fatigue, compared to 3.3 hours for their counterparts without fatigue.

According to the researchers, the rate of lost productivity for all health-related reasons also was much higher for workers with fatigue: 66 percent, compared with 26 percent for workers without fatigue.

Nine percent of workers with fatigue reported lost productive work time. According to the researchers, fatigue reduced work performance mainly by interfering with concentration and increasing the time needed to accomplish tasks.

With adjustment for other factors, fatigue was more common in women than men, in workers less than 50 years old and in white workers compared with African-Americans. Workers with “high-control” jobs – relatively well-paid jobs with decision-making responsibility – also reported higher rates of fatigue.

Employers Pay a Steep Price for Worker Fatigue

For U.S. employers, fatigue carried overall estimated costs of more than $136 billion per year in health-related lost productivity – $101 billion more than for workers without fatigue. Eighty-four percent of the costs were related to reduced performance while at work, rather than absences.

Health conditions for which fatigue is a major symptom – such as depression or anxiety – accounted for only a small part of the productivity losses. Far more of the costs were thought to result from a wide range of other physical and mental health problems that may occur when fatigue also is present.

Work-Life Programs, Improved Treatment/Assessment Could Help

Previous studies have found that fatigue is a common symptom that is linked to missed work time. The researchers note that the new study is the first to focus specifically on the rate of fatigue in U.S. workers, and its relationship to worker productivity.

Ricci and her team conclude that the results identify fatigue as a major problem in the U.S. work force, and one with a major impact on productivity and costs.

“Interventions targeting workers with fatigue, particularly women, could have a marked positive effect on the quality of life and productivity of affected workers,” the researchers conclude. They suggest that companies could offer “work-life programs” to help employees balance their work and personal responsibilities, and take steps to improve assessment and treatment for the large subgroup of workers who have fatigue co-occurring with other health conditions.

By Josh Cable,

Occupational Hazards.com

http://www.occupationalhazards.com/News/Article/44448/Study_Workplace_Fatigue_Common_Costly.aspx

    OSHA offers a wide range of materials both electronically and in print for use by employers, safety and health managers, and employees at all levels of an organization. The most frequently downloaded publications from OSHA’s Web site in fiscal year 2006 were: Job Safety & Health Protection Poster; Job Hazard Analysis Guide; Personal Protective Equipment Guide; Motor Vehicle Guidelines for Employers; Heat Stress QuickCard; and Workplace Violence Guide.

Workers with high levels of job strain are at increased risk of burnout, according to a study published in the October Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The study also found that job burnout was the most significant risk factor for depression among the study participants.

Using specific questionnaires, Kirsi Ahola of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, and colleagues assessed burnout and job strain in a representative sample of 3,270 Finnish workers.

Workers with high scores for exhaustion and cynicism and low scores for professional effectiveness were considered to have burnout.

High job strain was defined as facing high work demands with little control over one’s work. The workers also were assessed for symptoms of depression.

Twenty-eight percent of workers met the study definition of burnout, according to the researchers. Burnout was more common in older workers, those who were unmarried and those with manual occupations.

High alcohol use, physical inactivity, being overweight and having a physical or mental illness also increased the risk of burnout.

High job strain was present in 23 percent of workers, and was the most important risk factor for burnout. After adjustment for other factors, workers with high job strain were seven times more likely to be “burned out” than those with low job strain.

High job strain also was the strongest risk factor for depression, according to the researchers. Workers with high job strain were four times more likely to have depressive symptoms and 70 percent more likely to score in the “clinically depressed” range.

Study: Burnout May Be an Intermediate Step Between Job Strain and Depression

The relationship between job strain and burnout was little affected by adjustment for other factors, including indicators of physical and mental health, according to the researchers. In contrast, the association between job strain and depression all but disappeared after adjustment for burnout.

“This suggests that much of the association between job strain and depression is attributable to burnout,” the researchers wrote.

Burnout and depression also were related to other categories of job strain: “active work,” consisting of high job demands and high control; and “passive work,” with low demands and low control.

The concept of job burnout – defined as “a state of exhaustion combined with doubts about the value of one’s own work and competence” – is still debated among occupational health researchers. Previous studies have shown a close relationship between burnout, which is supposedly work-related; and depression, generally regarded as a more pervasive problem. The new study is the first to simultaneously assess all three factors in a large population representing the full range of occupations, the researchers assert.

Although the study can’t prove any cause-and-effect relationship, the results suggest that burnout is an intermediate step in the relationship between job strain and depression. It also suggests that various types of job strain may contribute to burnout.

- Josh Cable
http://www.occupationalhazards.com/articles/15726

A new program from the Liberty Mutual Research Institute assesses worker injury rates based on work scheduling factors.

by George Brogmus and Wayne Maynard

So many industries utilize shiftwork schedules that nearly 15 million full-time workers in the United States work shifts outside the traditional 9-to-5 or flex-time workday, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet those added shifts, implemented specifically to increase profitability, actually may be costing companies money through higher worker injury rates.

By rethinking how you schedule shiftwork, you can help keep workers safe and make each shift more effective.

Based on the findings of a recently published Liberty Mutual Research Institute study modeling the impact of the components of long work hours on injuries and accidents, the loss prevention group developed a program to assess worker injury risk based on such work scheduling factors as time of day, hours per shift, number of consecutive shifts and time between rest breaks.

The program addresses the following shiftwork problems:

• Work-related injuries increased 15.2 percent on afternoon shifts and 27.9 percent on the night shift relative to the morning shift.
• Injury risk increases nearly linearly after the eighth hour of a shift, with risk increasing 13 percent on a 10-hour shift and almost 30 percent on a 12-hour shift.
• As consecutive shifts increase, injury risk also increases, but at a higher rate for night shifts than for day shifts.
• Average risk for injury is 36 percent higher on the last night of a four-consecutive-night shift. Risk increases incrementally over each night on the job: 6 percent higher on the second night, 17 percent higher on the third night – culminating at 36 percent on the fourth night.
• Injury risk is 2 percent higher on the second morning/day shift, 7 percent higher on the third day and 17 percent higher on the fourth day than it is on the first shift.
• Injury risk also increases as time between breaks increases. The last 30 minutes of a 2-hour work period has twice the risk of injury as the 30 minutes immediately after the break.

Combating the Problem

One way to combat these problems is to evaluate the combined effect of work scheduling factors rather than to just limit total work hours. For example, scheduling four, 12-hour day shifts with hourly breaks will produce less risk than six, 8-hour night shifts with hourly breaks. Both shift schedules add 8 hours of work, but only one has significantly less risk of injury.

If you are contemplating adding overtime or expanding shifts, several guidelines will help you build a safer shiftwork schedule. For example, establish maximum limits for days and nights worked per week, including overtime. Whenever possible, favor day/morning shifts over afternoon or night shifts. Keep schedules regular and predictable, and alternate weeks of overtime with weeks of normal time.

Consider adding hours to existing shifts or add an additional day of work to the project, and limit work to five or six consecutive shifts. Provide for frequent rest breaks. Hourly breaks generally are appropriate, but consider providing more frequent breaks for highly repetitive or strenuous work.

Schedule work so every worker has at least two consecutive rest days and at least one of these days is Saturday or Sunday. Avoid scheduling several days of work followed by four- to seven-day mini-vacations. These schedules should be used only when there is no other choice, such as in mining or oil exploration.

For those situations when you have to schedule night shifts, here are some ways to help combat the increased risk of injury:

• Keep consecutive nights shifts to a minimum – four nights maximum in a row should be worked before a couple of days off and schedule no more than 48 hours of night shiftwork per worker per week.
• Educate workers on the importance of getting enough good sleep. Suggest they use black-out drapes, turn off phones and pagers and use a fan or white noise to mask daytime noises. Regular exercise, diet and relaxation techniques also are effective strategies for coping with night work.
• Consider alternatives to adopting permanent night shifts. Most workers never fully adapt to night shiftwork, since they go back to a daytime schedule during days off.
• Avoid quick shift changes and adjust shift length to the workload.
• Take into account all aspects of workers’ job and home lives when changing work schedules.

When scheduling shift rotation, provide a minimum of 11 hours off between shifts and a minimum of 24 to 48 hours when rotating workers off the night shift. Ideally, the change from the night and morning shifts should happen between 7 a.m and 9 a.m., as starting the morning shift too early often cuts down on evening sleep time. Also keep in mind that forward shift rotation – going from a day to afternoon or afternoon to night or night to day shift – is more compatible with normal sleep patterns than backward shift rotation.

Involve Workers

Whatever approach you take to scheduling shiftwork, a very important component is worker involvement. You should solicit worker feedback in the scheduling process rather than handing down a mandatory schedule. Provide training or awareness programs for new shiftworkers and their families to help them cope with the irregular schedule. Lastly, ensure that workers on all shifts – including the non-traditional schedules – have access to health care and counseling services.

With 15 percent of the total full-time U.S. work force working non-traditional shifts, rethinking shift scheduling can make a significant impact on productivity and worker safety.

Sidebar: Do Extended Work Schedules Lead to More Injuries?

Limited employee involvement in schedule selection, long workdays and an excess of consecutive workdays all are linked to increased risk of ergonomic-related injuries, according to a report published by Circadian Technologies Inc. Poor work/life conditions and sleep deprivation also can lead to ergonomic injuries and lost workdays, especially among employees in extended-hours positions (regularly working outside the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.).

“We have long known that long work hours, high fatigue levels and work schedules that fail to account for human physiological needs are linked to a 20 percent increased rate of workers’ compensation claims among facilities with extended-hours operations,” said Kirsty Kerin, Ph.D., one of the principal authors of “Ergonomics Risks, Myths and Solutions for Extended Hours Operations.”

Kerin’s report further details the link between work practices and ergonomic injuries, such as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The study notes:

• In a survey of more than 12,500 extended-hours workers, 30 percent of male workers and 41 percent of female workers reported chronic or frequent back pain, while 16 percent of male workers and 27 percent of female workers reported chronic or frequent wrist pain.
• Sleep deprivation could possibly be damaging in terms of muscle, ligament or tendon injury. With the average extended-hours employee sleeping only 5.1 hours to 5.5 hours each day when working a night shift, they could face an increased risk of ergonomic injuries.
• The balance of work and home life is important in controlling the number of lost workdays due to MSD complaints. Both men and women who face simultaneous presence of high mental workload and increased domestic workload have increased neck and shoulder MSDs.
• Disturbances in sleep affect pain and negatively impact the time it takes a worker to return to work after suffering a soft-tissue injury such as low-back pain.
• Six days of restricted sleep (4 hours per 24-hour period) caused changes to the sleep architecture that are similar to the changes seen in people suffering from depression. Also, lack of sleep causes changes in several natural body rhythms of hormone secretion including melatonin, cortisol, thyroid-stimulating hormone, leptin, prolactin and growth hormone.

In addition, researchers found that although working more than 8 hours a day was shown to increase ergonomic injury rates, working two to four weekends a month also was shown to have a negative impact. Since most 12-hour schedules limit consecutive workdays to four, and provide employees with twice as many weekends off as 8-hour schedules, there are pros and cons to each schedule type and 12-hour shifts are not inherently problematic.

“Involving employees in schedule selection, training workers on managing the work/life demands of working extended hours and revisiting workplace policies such as break rules and rest periods can significantly decrease the risk of costly accidents and injuries,” states Alex Kerin, Ph.D., the other principal author of the study. Fatigue management initiatives to decrease employee fatigue while at work and commuting to the job as well as to improve sleep quality also represent critical interventions for extended-hours employers, Kerin noted.

George Brogmus is technical director, ergonomics, for the Liberty Mutual Group’s Business Market, and Wayne Maynard is director, ergonomics and tribology, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety (www.libertymutual.com).

- George Brogmus and Wayne