Ergonomic Basis of Disabling Injuries in Telephone Workers

Abstract

There is growing appreciation among human factors and safety specialists regarding the frequent link between ergonomic defects in job, workstation, and/or equipment design, and job-related accidents and injuries. With the objective of critically addressing this question, we analyzed the nature and cause of disabling injuries suffered by employees of a large northwest telephone company over the period 5/74 through 6/81. The data base consists of disabling injury claims accepted by the Oregon Workers Compensation Department. A total of 395 claims over the 86 month period were analyzed. We judged that the injury source designations were specific enough to enable us to provisionally categorize the injuries into three major groups: (1) probable ergonomic cause (manual materials handling); (2) possible ergonomic cause (falls, free bodily motion); and non-ergonomic cause (all other injury sources). Under this categorization, 26.1% of the disabling injuries had probable, 49.4% possible, and 24.5% no ergonomic cause. Free bodily motion and falls each accounted for 25% of all injuries, with lifting (14%) the third most common source of injury. Muscular strain from all sources was the most frequent type of injury, representing 59% of all injuries. The body part most frequently affected was the back (39% of total injuries; 50% of all strains). The results suggest that ergonomic factors may play a significant if not dominant role in disabling injuries suffered by telephone workers, with muscular strain, particularly to the back, being the most prevalent type of injury.