#168 Back Safety— To avoid strain, keep your back in neutral position.

The information below is abbreviated and excerpted from the full Safety Meeting Outline and is presented to show how the Safety World Safety Meeting Outline addresses this topic.  For more information or to request a sample Safety Meeting Outline, Click here.

The following outline is designed for use with the poster, mini-poster and handouts—To avoid strain, keep your back in neutral position

(Read these notes before the meeting.  You may wish to make changes to suit your work situation.)

Note : This meeting outline has been divided into four parts to assist those who prefer to hold  brief weekly safety meetings. The four parts are 1) Understanding back pain 2) Likely causes 3) Working in ways that protect your back, and 4) Living with back pain.

Purpose of the meeting:

• To remind team members not to work in ways that put their backs at risk.
• To emphasize that back pain is a debilitating problem that can cause workers to lose work time.
• To raise consciousness of good back care practices. Most back pain can often be avoided by maintaining good muscle tone through exercise, combined with correct standing, sitting, lifting and carrying.

Disclaimer
Make it clear that what follows is not medical advice, but information that has been passed out by back doctors. Doctors emphasize that you should not try to diagnose your own problem. Always seek medical advice.

Suggested Opener
You may like to consider these facts:

• Much back pain is caused by life style; not all back pain is associated with work. It is as likely to occur as a result of off the job activities as through work.
• Back injuries make up 30% of all job injuries.
• Once you suffer from back pain, you are at high risk for repeated "attacks".

Excerpt from Part 1: Understanding back pain

• Most back pains are caused by muscle spasm.
• Muscle spasms are often caused because the discs between the vertebrae flatten out, causing friction between the vertebrae and  triggering the spasm...

Excerpt from Part 2: Likely causes
What are the most likely causes of back injury or back pain in our department, and how can we avoid them?

You may wish to talk about the back pain members of your group already suffer, and ways for others to avoid it...

Excerpt from Part 3: Working in ways that
protect your back
What preventive measures should we take in our department to avoid situations that put backs at risk?
What can we do to avoid back pain when carrying out our duties?
(Answers may be stretching, exercise, taking scheduled breaks, taking care before moving a heavy object, not over straining).
Here is another answer:
Before you sit, stand, reach out, lift or carry, think!
Here are other moves to remember (you may wish to run through some of the moves that team members make during the course of their duties)...

Excerpt from Part 4: Living with back pain
Again, what follows is not medical advice. If you have back pain, consult your doctor before undertaking exercise.
What do you find the most effective way to prevent recurrent bouts?
* The medical profession used to believe that the cure for a sore back was bedrest. Doctors now discourage this, except for someone in very severe pain, and then only until the pain subsides...