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Simple acts of stretching, focusing can help reduce job injuries

FLEXIBILITY CRITICAL TO PREVENTION; TRY FIVE-MINUTE WARM-UP

The slowing economy and inflationary pressures are squeezing profit margins, causing business leaders to carefully examine their cost structures. While the price of gasoline is beyond management control, expenses associated with job-related injuries can be dramatically reduced if firms make a long-term commitment to a culture of safety.

This approach starts at the top and involves more than a weekly office safety break or tailgate meeting once a month to talk about accident prevention. It includes daily emphasis on ways to better prepare employees to properly handle the mental and physical requirements of their job, as well as a warm-up session that includes proper lifting techniques and stretching exercises to improve flexibility and balance.

Dr. Julie Gilchrist, a medical epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one of the authors of an official government review of stretching published in the March 2004 issue of Medicine & Science, said “stretching that prevented injuries included warm-ups with the stretching.” She concluded that if you start out by moving through a range of motion that you’ll use during activity, you are less likely to be injured.

Flexibility is the key to injury prevention, not brute strength. Coaches of professional sports teams include stretching in prep time before a game, so why not start similar programs to help material handlers, office workers and everyone operating machinery or doing physical tasks avoid becoming workers’ comp statistics? School children would never play a sport without it.

Sessions held before work begins also enable managers to show everyone that they personally support the safety culture. It is a time for employees to discuss the challenges they face with equipment and to strategize about the challenges of the day ahead. These meetings also give supervisors a chance to observe employees as they report for work to see if they show signs of having non-job-related injuries that could affect performance or worse, cause the experience modification rate to climb and raise workers’ compensation insurance rates.

I advise clients to set aside a few minutes at the beginning of each shift for managers and staff to focus on the tasks of the day, to discuss how to accomplish goals, to think about accident prevention and to practice proper individual physical motions as well as those requiring two or more persons.

A five-minute warm-up and stretching exercise at the start of each day helps loosen tight muscles contracted due to long periods of inactivity. It gets blood moving from the stomach to the appropriate muscles used during the day and lubricates joints that could be at risk. Each stretch should be very specific and purposeful, while targeting one muscle group at a time.

In my experience, clients who have adopted a behavior-based ergonomic approach to a safety culture have witnessed significant declines in injuries. Some testimonials:

• “A consultant evaluated our common lifting operations in the field to assist us with ergonomic improvements designed to save our backs. Since instituting procedures, including daily stretching and deliberate/proper lifting techniques, we have had only one major back injury in the last four years, and our workers’ compensation insurance costs have been cut in half,” said Doug Hamilton, president of Oak Grove Construction Inc. “We are a passionate advocate for daily stretching, and its significant benefits have contributed both to our bottom line as well as to increased personal health for all of our employees.”

• Rick Lavezzo, safety manager with Browning-Ferris Industries in San Mateo, said “A statistical review indicates that there were a significantly lower number of back injury claims in the year after we started the injury prevention program. This was the telling factor in determining the success of the training.”

• A leading global hotel chain found that injuries in its housekeeping department fell from 200 to 30 in the year following the introduction of a regular warm-up and stretching regimen.

• A major California wine producer reported a dramatic drop from 250 time-loss accidents in 2007 to 30 in 2008 after instituting a similar plan.

By embracing a culture of safety and awareness focusing on prevention, injuries and accidents can be reduced. This process involves conducting an inventory of possible motion-related hazards and includes management discussions with employees of better ways to relate to the work environment. It requires positive worker attitudes toward safety and a willingness to comply coupled with employee buy-in and acceptance of a self-defense “watch each other’s back” mentality.

Success can be realized if employers see the benefits of being committed to an ongoing program, rather than just a quick-fix solution, that reduces injuries while increasing productivity, cutting absenteeism and leading to higher job satisfaction for managers and employees alike.

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Dr. Sheila O’Halloran is president of Balance and Motion for Health, 707-894-4544, www.balancemotionhealth.com.