Recent national statistics show that nearly a quarter of all occupational injuries and illnesses involve the back. And figures from the National Council on Compensation Insurance place the average cost (medical and indemnity) of a low-back injury claim at nearly $15,000.

 

With this in mind, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) and The Ohio State University joined forces on an award-winning research project aimed at preventing new and recurring back injuries in the workplace.

 

The joint research project yielded lifting guidelines that

 

Identify hazardous conditions associated with lifting tasks to avoid injury or the risk of re-injury;
Help develop realistic transitional work programs for employees returning to work after a low-back injury;
Facilitate communication between employers, transitional work developers and medical providers by matching the injured worker with appropriate jobs and by redesigning jobs.
Using these guidelines can help prevent some of the most common and costly occupational injuries affecting America’s work force. According to BWC statistics, 18 percent of Ohio’s workers’ compensation claims filed in 2002 were attributable to back injuries.

 

An interactive version of these guidelines is available on BWC’s Web site, ohiobwc.com. They are easily accessible from the ohiobwc.com home page by choosing Safety services then Lifting guidelines. BWC designed the online guidelines to allow users to enter criteria for various lifting tasks. The information is analyzed, and a risk level of high, moderate or low is given for each lifting task.

 

For additional information about the lifting guidelines, please contact BWC’s ergonomics technical advisor Chris Hamrick at (614) 995-1203, or send an e-mail to Christopher.H.1@bwc.state.oh.us. The lifting guidelines will be featured at BWC’s Ohio Safety Congress & Expo, March 23-25, 2004 at the Cincinnati Convention Center, and at the spring and fall sessions of Workers’ Compensation University (WCU). For more information on these events, log on to ohiobwc.com and click on the Ohio Safety Congress & Expo and WCU banner ads at the top of the home page.