Taking MSD prevention to the next step

By Desre Kramer, CRE-MSD

The MSD Prevention Guideline for Ontario is now five years old. Ontario needs to evaluate its success and work out what to do next. On June 27, 2011, 100 people came together in Toronto to learn, discuss, and plan how to take Ontario’s musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) strategy one step further. The focus of the discussion forum was on ways to reduce MSDs caused by manual materials handling.

Those who attended the discussion forum came from organized labour (six unions), business (transportation, electrical utilities, high tech, retail, steel, and energy), Health & Safety Ontario, the Ministry of Labour, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), researchers, injured workers, and consultants.

The day-long event was hosted by the Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD), a research centre based at the University of Waterloo. CRE-MSD comprises a network of 37 researchers across 11 different universities and institutions. It is funded by the WSIB.

Sophie Dennis, assistant deputy minister, operations, for the Ontario Ministry of Labour, and Richard Wells, the director of CRE-MSD, opened the forum. They focused on the personal and financial burden of MSDs and the importance of finding an effective strategy to reduce these injuries and disabilities.

All the speakers touched on the forum’s themes:

• jurisdictional approaches (e.g., legislation, codes of practice or guidelines)
• manual materials handling risk assessment
• resources for workplace parties/stakeholders/inspectors, such as training, tools, guidance, case studies, information, consultation, website content)
• strategies that are sector specific or for small businesses; communication strategies evaluation.

The morning had presentations from other jurisdictions and health and safety systems. Invited speakers from

• British Columbia noted the province has had ergonomic legislation for a number of years, but inspectors have written few orders on related issues
• the U.S. described multiple initiatives, including those of the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and Washington State, but noted that only California had regulations in place
• Western Australia described how the Ministry of Labour is setting about creating a strategy to reduce MSDs
• the United Kingdom described how educational material written for their inspectors has been made public and is now being used by employers.

John Vander Doelen from the Ministry of Labour got the afternoon going by stressing the importance of using the knowledge gained from the morning’s cross-jurisdictional review to create a made-in-Ontario strategy. Participants then engaged in small-group discussions. Ten groups discussed two questions in relation to the six forum themes. The questions were:

• What would success in Ontario look like?
• How can we adapt what we heard this morning to achieve that success in Ontario?

The discussions were lively, engaging and fully collaborative. The ideas that emerged from the groups covered all the themes and were creative, innovative, and thoughtful. The day closed with a call to arms from Elizabeth Mills, CEO of Workplace Safety and Prevention Services. The presence of the large and diverse group, representing all aspects of the workplace, has given weight to any future prevention and policy outcomes that arise from sharing this knowledge.

As a next step, CRE-MSD will create a white paper summarizing the forum, which will help inform future prevention efforts in Ontario for these painful and costly injuries. Speakers’ presentations have already been posted on the CRE-MSD website.

Desre Kramer is Associate Director for CRE-MSD. CRE-MSD research spans the field of MSD-prevention research from intensive, lab-based studies in cell and tissue disorders and injury, to the creation, implementation and evaluation of prevention programs. The centre conducts workplace-focused collaborative research with organized labour and employers, health and safety associations, occupational health clinics and training centres, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, and Ministry of Labour.

How we can help

• Materials handling: In preparation for the forum, CRE-MSD prepared a manual materials handling resources document with links from health and safety jurisdictions. It is a living document, and if you are aware of other resources, you can post their links to the site above or email them to Betina Butler: bbutler@uwaterloo.ca.

• Ergonomics and hazard assessment: Health & Safety Ontario offers an array of resources – free downloads, classroom and e-courses, consulting services, and more.