More than one-half of founded WCB claims across the country are soft tissue injuries
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has rolled out a new standard to help employers battle musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
More than one-half of the founded claims to workers’ compensation boards (WCBs) across the country are for soft tissue injuries, said Norma McCormick, president of Winnipeg-based Corporate Health Works.
MSDs are injuries and disorders of the musculoskeletal system. MSD is an umbrella term for a number of injuries and disorders of the muscles, tendons, nerves and other parts of the musculoskeletal system, according to the MSD Prevention Guideline for Ontario, published by the Occupational Health and Safety Council of Ontario.
The CSA has had an office ergonomics standard in place for some time, but didn’t have a standard geared towards other workplaces, even though MSDs are prevalent in every industry.
“It became obvious to us that we had a gap,” said McCormick, a member of the technical committee that oversaw the creation of the standard.
Another impetus for the standard, called CSA Z1004, was CSA’s standard Z1000 (an occupational health and safety management system). It talks about risk assessment and some of the risks in the workplace are those associated with work design, said McCormick.
“It became another reason to want more definition in terms of that aspect.”
Z1004 is a management standard with a plan, do, check, act model. It’s the same model used in Z1000 and in other occupational health and safety management systems.
“The standard outlines what we call an ergonomic process,” said McCormick. “It’s a way of considering… work design factors not only from a physical perspective but from the organization of work and cognitive requirements as well — the demands that are placed on our minds and our senses.”
The standard sets out a process of preventing MSDs through steps including identifying hazards in the workplace then putting in place prevention and protection measures which reduce the likelihood of injury and illness.
“One other important message in the standard is the importance of making the interventions at the design stage,” said McCormick. “There’s no point in designing a work process or activity that’s going to harm people and then trying to figure out how to keep that from happening. So the earlier in process that you can apply ergonomics, the more likely positive is the outcome.”
The process of creating the standard started with the creation of a technical committee. The committee was made up of people from various backgrounds including government, business, academia and stakeholders.
The standard was created through a consensus process, which results in a draft that goes out for public review. The Z1004 standard was released for public review in April 2010.
“We had very positive feedback,” she said. “The committee had very little to address following public review.”
After a standard is reviewed, changes are incorporated, then the standard is published. CSA Z1004 was published earlier this year.
Now the CSA will start the process of updating its office ergonomics standard, said Ron Meyers, a project manager at the CSA.
“We’ll be beginning the process of revising the Z412 office ergonomics standard, and it will be important for the technical committee now to… have both standards aligned closely to avoid duplication,” said Meyers. “The office ergonomics standard will focus on providing more detail in terms of addressing office-related hazards and risks, so we’re looking forward to getting that process started very soon.”
While each standard serves a different purpose, they can also work together, said Meyers.
“The office ergonomics standard is really specific to offices and addressing those types of hazards, where the Z1004… is a higher level, (it) provides that systematic process for dealing with ergonomics,” he said. “The two go really hand in hand.”
While Z1004 deals with everything, the office standard drums down to a specific level of detail, he said.
Having an a office ergonomics standard can identify hazards causing very common injuries in workplaces. Because so many claims to WCBs are MSD related, reducing soft tissue injuries should be top of mind.
“If companies want to do a really good job of reducing injuries and illness in the workplace, using an ergonomics intervention is a good place to start,” said McCormick.
The PDF of the standard is available on the CSA’s website. The cost of the standard is $150.
