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WATCH YOUR BACK
Prevention can keep the job from becoming a real pain
Oh, my achin' back.
From grocery stores to airport terminals, workers are hurting their backs -- frequently because of lifting heavy luggage or boxes -- and missing work. And the nurses who treat them are suffering the same injuries.
At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, 75 percent of the injuries handled at the on-site medical center are related to lifting or pulling, and many of the patients are employees who handle baggage, said Denise Simpson, a spokeswoman for Grady Medical Center.
The Grady-affiliated R.L. Brown Jr. clinic treats people with injuries from handling an array of items beyond baggage, such as food carts, ladders and the assortment of machinery behind the scenes at the airport, said Gary Cobb, the facility's chief operating officer.
Patients include airport and airline employees, workers in the shops along the concourses, ramp crews, Transportation Security Administration officers or anyone who might get hurt or sick at the airport.
"We have the ability to see injuries quickly, assess their severity and get employees back to work," Cobb said.
That quick response is one of the factors that can cut the amount of time an employee is away from work, reduce the employer's costs and ease employees' hassles with worker compensation claims.
It also means fewer times when security checkpoints or baggage claims are short-staffed.
Cobb estimated that the clinic treats 20 to 30 worker injuries a day, but it also provides physical therapy, drug testing and pre-screening for prospective airline and airport employees.
One way Cobb hopes to cut down on lost work time is by bringing health care services closer to the workers. That can turn a potential three-or-more-hour absence, counting travel time, into a trip barely longer than a typical visit to the doctor, Cobb pointed out.
Besides dispensing its pound of cure, the medical center also provides many ounces of prevention.
Cobb said the center offers an ergonomics assessment of each position an employer has and provides testing and training for airline and airport employees.
"We make sure people are trained," he said. "As we look at each position, we can make sure the pre-screening is appropriate for the job."
The medical center helps AirTran Airways with its pre-hiring tests. Prospective employees get lifting and carrying evaluations to see if they can handle some of the airline's more physically demanding jobs.
"We're trying to treat patients and prevent injuries from happening," Cobb said.
The TSA especially has been pinched by back injuries. A 2004 U.S. Labor Department study found that the agency's screeners -- who are required to lift both checked and carry-on bags, sometimes in tight spaces -- had the highest rate of injuries and illnesses among all federal employees.
Nearly one-fourth of TSA employees were treated for injuries for which the government reimbursed them, according to the study. The figure was more than one in three workers the previous year.
That's higher than the rate for foundry workers, couriers and pig farmers, whose injury and illness rates were among the highest for all job groupings in the Labor Department's report. The department said the average for all federal employees was 4.5 percent, and it was 4.8 percent in the private sector in 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available. The 2004 figure for private industry was an improvement from 5 percent the year before.
Common injuries to TSA employees included back strains from lifting heavy suitcases; cuts from sharp objects in bags; and bruises, bumps and even broken bones incurred when heavy objects fell on feet or hands, the Associated Press reported. While airports await expansion to accommodate them, baggage-scanning machines have been crammed into small spaces, which aggravates the risks of injuries from heavy lifting.
While the government and industry don't have comparable figures for airline baggage handlers, the Communications Workers of America conducted a survey in 2001 of passenger service agents, who also handle luggage. The survey found that 31 percent had reported neck, back or shoulder disorders, the AP reported.
It's not just airport workers who feel the pain. Grocery store workers share some of the same hazards as airport workers: heavy loads and tight spaces.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued ergonomic guidelines for grocery workers, citing the incidence of "musculoskeletal disorders, such as back injuries and sprains or strains that may develop from various factors, including lifting ... or injuries resulting from overexertion."
OSHA noted that stores that implemented injury-prevention efforts reduced work-related injuries and worker compensation costs. They also increased efficiency and improved employee morale.
Preventive measures include advising workers to carry heavy loads close to the body to reduce stress on the back, providing room so workers don't have to reach and lift at the same time, and equipping stock rooms with conveyors and turntables.
While OSHA has no specific guidelines on how much weight a person can lift safely, the agency notes that industry groups recommend maximums of 40 or 50 pounds.
Safety awareness and training, in addition to on-site clinics and faster response to treating injuries, are having a positive effect.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.'s Workplace Safety Index noted that on-the-job injuries are falling, but their cost to employers is still going up, if more slowly than in the past.
Still, employers spent nearly $50 billion in 2003 on wage payments and medical care for workers hurt on the job, the company said.
More than half of those injuries are caused by overexertion (injuries caused by excessive lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying or throwing), falls and bodily reaction (injuries from bending, climbing or slipping), Liberty Mutual said.
Meanwhile, the people who help workers recover -- nurses -- are getting hurt as well -- and for the same reasons.
The American Nurses Association reports that 38 percent of all nurses are affected by back injuries and that musculoskeletal disorders "are responsible for lost work time, the need for protracted medical care and permanent disability among health care workers."
The association cites lifting, transferring and repositioning patients as the most common tasks that cause injuries.
In response, the association calls for health care facilities to provide mechanical lifting devices for patients as well as increased attention to ergonomics training.
Health care facilities are dangerous places to work. Hospitals had 284,600 occupational injuries or illnesses in 2004, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, and nursing care facilities had 215,200. The two categories ranked Nos. 1 and 2, well ahead of transportation equipment manufacturing (151,500).
The problem may get more acute for nurses. According to a 2002 analysis of the health care industry's work force, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that, as the health care needs of the aging population increase in the coming years, the nurses who provide that care will be older themselves, and there won't be enough of them.
In 1980, the average new graduate with an associate's degree in nursing -- the largest source of new registered nurses -- was 28. By 2000, the average age had risen to 33.
