Poorly designed work and work environments can contribute to painful and life-altering MSDs.

Workers every day are in pain from strained or aggravated muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, discs, or blood vessels related to MSDs – the cost of these, physical and financial can affect a person for years, or most of their life. MSDs are the leading type of work-related lost-time claim reported to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in Ontario and costs our economy approximately $72 million annually, if not more. 

MSD risk factors include force, repetition, awkward and static postures, extreme temperatures, contact stress, as well as vibration from equipment and machinery.
 
Did you know controlling MSD hazards in a workplace is a legal requirement? Employers must take every reasonable precaution to protect workers. Most work-related MSDs are preventable and solutions are often easy and cost-effective with an action plan.

Proactively addressing workplace ergonomics achieves many benefits including:

• Increased worker health
• Increased workplace morale
• Increased labour relations
• Decreased MSDs
• Decreased WSIB costs
• Decreased lost time.

Action plans begin with training

WHSC has developed and implemented two virtual training programs – Ergonomics & MSDs that focuses solely on the prevention of MSDs for various workplaces and Office Work Environment that addresses factors that contribute to MSDs along with other hazards in office work environments. These two programs can be taken together or individually to provide workers, joint health and safety committees, supervisors and worker health and safety representatives in smaller workplaces with the knowledge and skills to recognize, assess and control, if not eliminate, factors that contribute to MSDs as well as identify other hazards that impact work.

What you’ll learn

Ergonomics & MSDs - Virtual
Review types of MSDs, their symptoms and health effects, explore how job demands and workplace hazards can contribute to MSDs, and learn how to identify and assess tasks that increase worker injury. Learn how ergonomics can be used to reduce job demands allowing workers to complete tasks more comfortably and safely.

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Office Work Environment - Virtual
Discuss how office work has changed over the past decade and how these changes have made these environments more hazardous. Explore how posture, force, and repetition influence the risk for developing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) such as back pain and tendonitis. Identify basic office ergonomic design principles needed to reduce the risk for developing an MSD. Poor indoor air quality and stress are just two of many more office hazards discussed. Relevant legislation is reviewed along with guidelines for office ergonomics developed by the Canadian Standards Association. Review tools for identifying and assessing hazards in the office environment and the risk to health for exposed workers. And identify the components of an effective action plan aimed at eliminating the wide range of risk factors found in the modern office setting.

REGISTER 

Visit us online for a catalogue of all our training programs. Registration for virtual and in-person classroom training closes two weeks before each training date.

Need more information?
Contact a WHSC training services representative in your area.
Email: contactus@whsc.on.ca
Visit: whsc.on.ca
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