Rules + Regs

NSC releases white paper on MSDs

The National Safety Council has released a white paper outlining nonphysical risk factors, such as organization and job stress, of work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

Overlooking these factors “can be a common reason MSDs are not decreasing in an organization,” NSC experts say in the paper.

The paper, released via the council’s MSD Solutions Lab, lists three categories of nonphysical MSD risk factors:

Organizational factors are “directly influenced or controlled by the employer and related to the way the work is designed, organized and managed.” These include work organization, training and job security.
Psychosocial factors are related to “interactions between and among work environment” and other attributes “that may influence health and work performance” such as mental workload, job satisfaction, job stress and perceived support.
Behavioral factors involve “actions a person engages in that can be modified or impacted by the workplace.” These include nutrition, amount of sleep, physical activity, alcohol/substance abuse and tobacco use.

NSC offers employers the following solutions to help navigate nonphysical MSD risk factors:

Add the mitigation of nonphysical risk factors into existing MSD prevention and ergonomics programs.
Engage frontline workers in learning about the connection between nonphysical risk factors and workplace safety.
Ensure safety and health training is adequate and delivered by qualified instructors.
Foster a culture of support, transparent communication and listening to workers.

“As we look to the future of MSD prevention and ergonomics, an emphasis on both physical and nonphysical risk factors is needed,” says Katherine Mendoza, senior director of workplace programs at NSC. “Employees who experience nonphysical risk factors are at a greater risk of injury, less satisfied with their work and more likely to leave their organizations, which is why it’s critically important for organizations to proactively address and mitigate these issues.”

OSHA restructures regional offices

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has completed changes to restructure its regional operations and create a new region in Birmingham, Ala. The new region will serve Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and the Florida Panhandle.

Additionally, OSHA has combined Regions 9 and 10 into a new San Francisco Region to improve OSHA’s ability to deploy resources and serve workers in the region.

Regions are now identified by geographic designations rather than numbers. OSHA has renamed the regions using the following designations:

Region 1 is now the Boston Region.
Region 2 is now the New York City Region.
Region 3 is now the Philadelphia Region.
Region 4 is now the Atlanta Region.
Region 5 is now the Chicago Region.
Region 6 is now the Dallas Region.
Region 7 is now the Kansas City Region.
Region 8 is now the Denver Region.
Regions 9 and 10 are now the San Francisco region.

EU’s safety agency launches website addressing carcinogen safety

When carcinogens are present in the workplace, “employers must do everything in their power to prevent workers from coming into contact with them,” according to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

The agency’s new website aims to provide information to help prevent worker exposure to carcinogens. It contains tips for providing worker instruction and details the “STOP” principle that describes the order of priority of protective measures. Employers “must observe this order of priority when determining and applying protective measures”:

Substitution. Replace dangerous substances with less dangerous processes or substances.
Technical measures. Strategies to reduce exposures can include using closed systems and effective air suction.
Organization measures. These include internal policies or organizational methods and are only used to offer additional protection. These also should be considered for emergencies and workers who perform regular maintenance and cleaning duties.
Personal protection. This applies when substitution isn’t possible and technical and organizational measures aren’t enough.

The website is available at stopcarcinogensatwork.eu/stop-carcinogens-at-work.