Friday, January 16, 2009

Safety Manual & Health Topics : Understanding the risk of musculoskeletal injury (MSI)

What is MSI.?
The Occupational Health and Safety Regulation defines musculoskeletal injury (MSI) as an injury or disorder of the muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, nerves, blood vessels or related soft tissue including a sprain, strain and inflammation, that may be caused or aggravated by work.

Signs and symptoms of MSI

Workers may notice pain,numbness, tingling,or weakness while on the job.Sometimes pain is just part of the normal human condition and can be ignored.Other times,it can be a manifestation of an injury or disease. To lessen the likelihood of an injury or disease, it may be necessary to reduce exposures to physical movements at work that have the potential to place workers at risk of injury (like strain) or disease (like tendinitis or carpal tunnel syndrome).It is important to note that each individual’s response to a physical exposure is different.The human body was designed to be active,so eliminating all physical activity is also unhealthy.