Types of Workplace Injuries Call Jim Vander Linden for Complete Workers Advocacy-612-339-6841



What are work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs)?

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are a group of painful disorders of muscles, tendons, and nerves. Carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, thoracic outlet syndrome, and tension neck syndrome are examples.

This page will discuss those injuries resulting from overuse & those that develop over time. Work activities which are frequent and repetitive, or activities with awkward postures cause these disorders which may be painful during work or at rest.

Almost all work requires the use of the arms and hands. Therefore, most WMSD affect the hands, wrists, elbows, neck & shoulders. Work using the legs can lead to WMSD of the legs, hips, ankles & feet. Some back problems also result from repetitive activities

What are the risk factors for WMSDs?

 



WMSDs are caused from arm & hand movements such as bending, straightening, gripping, holding, twisting, clenching & reaching. These common movements are not particularly harmful in the ordinary activities of daily life. What makes them hazardous in work situations is the continual repetition, often in a forceful manner, and most of all, the speed of the movements and the lack of time for recovery between them. WMSDs are associated with work patterns that include:

• Fixed or constrained body positions.
• Continual repetition of movements.
• Force concentrated on small parts of the body, such as the hand or wrist.
• A pace of work that does not allow sufficient recovery between movements.

Generally, none of these factors acts separately to cause WMSD. WMSDs commonly occur as a result of a combination and interaction among them.
Heat, cold and vibration also contribute to the development of WMSD.

WMSDs include three types of injuries:

• Muscle injury
• Tendon injury
• Nerve injury

 

What are the symptoms of WMSDs?

 

Pain is the most common symptom associated with WMSDs. In some cases there may be joint stiffness, muscle tightness, redness and swelling of the affected area. Some may also notice sensations of "pins and needles," numbness, skin color changes, & decreased sweating of the hands.
WMSDs may progress in stages from mild to severe.

Early stage: Aching and tiredness of the affected limb occur during the work shift but disappear at night and during days off work. No reduction of work performance.

Intermediate stage: Aching and tiredness occur early in the work shift and persist at night. Reduced capacity for repetitive work.

Late stage: Aching, fatigue, and weakness persist at rest. Inability to sleep and to perform light duties.
Not everyone goes through these stages in the same way. The first pain is a signal that the muscles and tendons should rest and recover. Otherwise, an injury can become longstanding,& sometimes, irreversible.

The table below outlines occupational risk factors and symptoms of the most common disorders of the upper body associated with WMSDs.

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Identified disorders, occupational risk factors and symptoms
Disorders	Occupational risk factors	Symptoms
Tendonitis/tenosynovitis	Repetitive wrist motions Repetitive shoulder motions Sustained hyper extension of arms Prolonged load on shoulders	Pain, weakness, swelling, burning sensation or dull ache over affected area
Epicondylitis (elbow tendonitis)	Repeated or forceful rotation of the forearm and bending of the wrist at the same time	Same symptoms as tendonitis
Carpal tunnel syndrome	Repetitive wrist motions	Pain, numbness, tingling, burning sensations, wasting of muscles at base of thumb, dry palm
DeQuervain's disease	Repetitive hand twisting and forceful gripping	Pain at the base of thumb
Thoracic outlet syndrome	Prolonged shoulder flexion Extending arms above shoulder height Carrying loads on the shoulder	Pain, numbness, swelling of the hands
Tension neck syndrome	Prolonged restricted posture	Pain



SPAM--IF IT DOES THIS KIND OF DAMAGE TO THE PROCESSOR WHAT'S IT DOING TO THE CONSUMER?

 

On the cut-and-kill floor of Quality Pork Processors Inc.in Austin, Minnesota, the wind always blows from the open doors at the docks where drivers unload trailers of screeching pigs, through to the "warm room" where the hogs are butchered, to the plastic-draped breezeway where the parts are handed over to Hormel for packaging, the air gusts and swirls, whistling through the plant like the current in a canyon. In the first week of December 2006, Matthew Garcia felt feverish and chilled on the blustery production floor. He fought stabbing back pains and nausea, but he figured it was just the flu—and he was determined to tough it out. Garcia had gotten on at QPP only 12 weeks before and had been stuck with one of the worst spots on the line: running a device known simply as the "brain machine"—the last stop on a conveyor line snaking down the middle of a J-shaped bench [DC] called the "head table." Every hour, more than 1,300 severed pork heads go sliding along the belt. Workers slice off the ears, clip the snouts, chisel the cheek meat.

 

Matthew Garcia

 

They scoop out the eyes, carve out the tongue, and scrape the palate meat from the roofs of mouths. Because, famously, all parts of a pig are edible nothing is wasted. A woman next to Garcia would carve meat off the back of each head before letting the denuded skull slide down the conveyor and through an opening in a plexiglass shield.
On the other side, Garcia inserted the metal nozzle of a 90-pounds-per-square-inch compressed-air hose and blasted the pigs' brains into a pink slurry. One head every three seconds. A high-pressure burst, a fine rosy mist, and the slosh of brains slipping through a drain hole into a catch bucket. (Some workers say the goo looked like Pepto-Bismol; others describe it as more like a lumpy strawberry milkshake.) When the 10-pound barrel was filled, another worker would come to take the brains for shipping to Asia, where they are used as a thickener in stir-fry..

Garcia inserted a compressed-air hose

 and blasted the pigs' brains into a pink slurry.

 One head every three seconds

Tasks at the head table are literally numbing. The steady hum of the automatic Whizard knives gives many workers carpal tunnel syndrome. For eight hours, Garcia stood, slipping heads onto the brain machine's nozzle, pouring the glop into the drain, then dropping the empty skulls down a chute. By early December, Garcia would return home spent, his back and head throbbing. But this was more than ordinary exhaustion or some winter virus. On December 11, Garcia awoke to find he couldn't walk. His legs felt dead, paralyzed. His family rushed him to the Austin Medical Center.
Doctors there sent Garcia to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, about an hour away. By the time he arrived, he was running a high fever and complaining of piercing headaches. He underwent a battery of exams, including MRIs of his head and back. Every test revealed neurological abnormalities, most importantly a severe spinal-cord inflammation, apparently caused by an autoimmune response. It was as if his body was attacking his nerves.
By Christmas, Garcia had been bedridden for two weeks, and baffled doctors feared he might be suicidal. They sent a psychiatrist to prepare him for life in a wheelchair.

Soon after Daniel was ill 16 other employees on the same line came down with the same symptoms. All of them were eventually sent to the Mayo Clinic, where the best diagnosis for all of them was severe neurological damage. 6 of the 16 were conveniently fired for being here illegally. The other 10 learned not to admit anything because of what they had seen their co workers go through. Eventually those 10 did receive a settlement of approx. $12,500 each with continuing medical coverage, however 0 of the 10 have ever recouped to their status before these problems started.
It's scary how fast your life can change. Take nothing for granted, be aware of your surroundings and be aware of your co workers--it just may save your life!