What Are Ergonomic Risk Factors?
Posted on Wed, May 05, 2010 @ 10:16 AM
Currently available data have identified that risk factors for Work-Related WrMSDs include exposure to physical stress in manual work. Physical stress arises from physical attributes of the work, workstation, tools, materials and equipment. Properties of physical stress are affected by job design and work organizational factors. The presence or absence of physical stresses and the level of their properties are assessed through job analyses.
Typically job analyses addresses the following physical stresses:
- Force
- Posture and motions
- Vibration
- Temperature
Job analysis quantifies the following properties of each physical stress factor:
- Magnitude
- Repetition or frequency
- Duration
- Recovery
Job analysis also considers job and work organization factors that can alter the characteristic properties of physical stress exposure.
A combination of risk factors rather than any single risk factor may be responsible for the occurrence of WrMSDs. Therefore, identifying all the risk factors that may be present in the job is important.
For an identification of the different types of ergonomic risk factors and workplace hazards download our Free 14-Page Whitepaper: Determining Ergonomic Risk Factors.
And don't forget to bookmark this blog and come back next week for the follow-up post: How to Measure Risk Factors
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