October 24, 2005—The Ontario, Canada, government has received a report from its Ergonomics Advisory Panel that recommends ways to protect workers from musculoskeletal injuries. The government is reviewing the report to help implement strategies to protect workers from the effects of ergonomics-related injuries.
According to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, there were 41,670 musculoskeletal injuries resulting in lost time at work in 2003. This represents over 40 percent of all lost-time injuries in Ontario workplaces.
The report focuses on education and outreach, research, enforcement and standards. Recommendations include:
- Establishing a common definition of musculoskeletal injuries to help track and analyze trends;
- Integrating ergonomics into training for professionals like engineers, health care practitioners, and skilled tradespersons; and
- Creating an inventory of existing ergonomics standards to help workplace parties reduce musculoskeletal injuries.
The report is available on the Ministry of Labour’s Web site.
