Action Plan for Preventing Musculoskeletal Disorders: Exposure Control

This report presents an action plan designed to prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) among employees. It begins by defining MSD and highlighting its significant costs to companies. The plan includes a weekly exposure assessment conducted by a health expert to identify MSD agents and their frequency. A hierarchy of controls is proposed, emphasizing engineering controls like mechanical devices to reduce manual lifting risks, substituting hazardous activities, and administrative mechanisms such as safety cards for self-assessment. Daily workplace monitoring of worker activities and behaviors is recommended to detect early signs of MSD, supplemented by weekly medical surveillance performed by healthcare providers to identify potential MSD symptoms early on, thereby minimizing long-term expenses. This comprehensive approach aims to create a safer work environment and mitigate the impact of MSD.

1
Running head: ACTION PLAN FOR PREVENTING MSD
Action Plan for Preventing MSD
Name
Institution

2
ACTION PLAN FOR PREVENTING MSD
Introduction
MSD is a term which means Musculoskeletal Disorders and mostly affects nerves, joints,
muscles and ligaments. Many employees are affected by this disorder. Hales (2016) argues that
more than 30% of the costs of worker compensation are used on MSD. Additionally, statistics
indicate that in the year 2011, U.S. companies spent more than 50 billion dollars on the costs of
MSD (Bepko and Mansalis, 2016). This implies that MSD is a serious condition which can
greatly cost a company if proper interventions are not put in place. This piece of work, therefore,
offers a plan for handling the issue of MSD among employees in a company.
Exposure Assessment
The workers are exposed to the agents of MSD such as continued exertion of excess force
on the body or the twisting of a joint (Trask, Bath, Johnson and Teschke, 2016). The causes of
MSD in this company, as well as the frequency at which the workers are exposed to these agents
will be done on weekly basis. This will require an expert in health sector who will be assessing
the rate at which the workers are exposed to risks of developing MSD.
Hierarchy of Controls
The identified potential hazards together with their frequency at which they occur in the
workplace would be recorded and necessary actions taken. Such actions would include use of
engineering which involves use of mechanical devices in order to reduce the risk of employees
getting in to injuries due to manual lifting and other activities which can harm the body (Bepko
and Mansalis, 2016). Additionally, the activities which expose workers into greater hazards of
body injuries would be replaced or substituted with other activities which also have similar
results. Moreover, administrative mechanisms can be used where the workers will be provided

3
ACTION PLAN FOR PREVENTING MSD
with safety cards which they would be using to assess their body health in order to identify early
stages of MSD.
Workplace Monitoring
The activities and behavior of workers will be monitored on daily basis in reference to
what they do and how they feel. The workers may be having minor pains and other injuries
which may be a sign of a developing MSD. Bell et al. (2016) argues that the workplace
monitoring can be done through several ways such as mobile tracking, checking the health of the
workers through observation of such activities as walking and other activities within the
workplace. This monitoring will be done in order to identify any possible signs of MSD. The
monitoring will be done using the daily activities of the employees in the workplace.
Medical Surveillance
This medical surveillance will be done on a weekly basis where the employees will be
tested using medical devices in order to identify any potential growth of MSD symptoms. This
will be done by professional health care providers such as nurses on every worker in the
workplace. The surveillance will be significant since any MSD would be identified early enough
and hence reduce the time and expenses that the facility would incur in extreme and developed
MSD (Bell et al., 2016).

4
ACTION PLAN FOR PREVENTING MSD
References
Bell, M. R., O'Donnell, F. L., Brundage, J. F., Clark, L. L., Williams, V. F., & Lohr, E. J.
(2016). Medical Surveillance Monthly Report. Medical Surveillance Monthly Report
Silver Spring United States.
Bepko, J., & Mansalis, K. (2016). Common Occupational Disorders: Asthma, COPD, Dermatitis,
and Musculoskeletal Disorders. American family physician, 93(12).
Hales, T. R. (2016). Ergonomics and upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders. Physical and
Biological Hazards of the Workplace, 13-32.
Trask, C., Bath, B., Johnson, P. W., & Teschke, K. (2016). Risk factors for low back disorders in
Saskatchewan farmers: field-based exposure assessment to build a foundation for
epidemiological studies. JMIR research protocols, 5(2).