According to the latest data available from leading insurance companies, workplace injuries due to repetitive motion cost employers an estimated 2.8 billion dollars annually. One of the most often overlooked aspects of an established safety program by companies is one of developing an ergonomics component to their program.

Trauma at the workplace is typically divided into two categories: acute and cumulative. Acute trauma refers to an injury sustained with an accident, while repetitive stress injuries fall into the cumulative category. Cumulative trauma involves the breaking down of the body's soft tissues as a result of many factors including excessive force, bad posture, and even temperature as well as personal traits such as diabetes and obesity. A senior consultant for Applied Safety and Ergonomics Inc. stated, "When you have a combination of these risk factors come together, that's when a person is most at risk for developing cumulative trauma disorders."

I believe we would all agree that the symptoms and severity of symptoms associated with cumulative trauma disorders vary widely from person to person. And it's safe to say that some people have a predisposition to cumulative trauma, which doesn't make life any easier for the employer responsible for identifying at risk job tasks. The first step is to try and minimize the factors by identifying the work tasks that might contribute to cumulative trauma disorders. While researching facts in several articles about ergonomics, I found some of the following suggestions to assist in doing this.

1. Look for patterns. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends reviewing their OSHA 300 logs and other illness and injury records to look for patterns in job duties. Even without this review, a simple approach is to look closely at the tasks that are associated with high turnover, absenteeism, or complaints.
2. Analyze job tasks for potential risks. OSHA recommends looking at jobs that involve awkward posture; forceful lifting, pushing or pulling; prolonged repetitive motion; contact stress; and vibration.
3. Talk to your workers. Some suggestions from OSHA include symptom surveys and employee questionnaires.
4. Look at your industry. It's been said that if other companies in your same industry have ergonomic related problems, you will, too.
5. Use risk assessment tools. There's no perfect science available to the tools necessary for a company to assume a 100% ergonomically-safe workplace, but there are helpful tools available through private firm consultants, insurance companies, and OSHA and other government agencies.