Education News
• What are the top four personnel injury types at YPG?
• What is the difference between and strain and a sprain?
• How can we reduce the top four injury types, and other types of injuries at YPG?
If any of your answers to question one included strains and sprains, slips/trip/falls, struck by, and insects bites/stings, you are correct.
YPG’s most common injury type is strains and sprains, often the result of a slip, trip, or fall and have similar symptoms but they are two very different types of injuries. The common symptoms include pain, swelling/inflammation, difficulty moving the injured part of body, and limited range of motion just to mention a few. However, strains are soft-tissue injuries (tissue being stretched too far) along with bruising in the area of the injury where sprains are ligament injuries (bands of tissue that connect bones to each other to prevent abnormal movement) and do not show any bruising in the area of the injury.
The key to reducing injuries is to understand what they are and why/ how they occur. The most common causes of strains and sprains
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include fatigue, awkward postures (ergonomics), abrupt movement, twisting motions, slips, trips, falls, and repetitive activities.
Knowledge exercise 2:
• Are there any illnesses that cause tendons to weaken?
• Are there any other contributing factors to strains and sprains?
There are illnesses that may cause tendons to become weak and more likely to tear which include: Kidney Disease, Hyperparathyroidism,
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Gout, Leukemia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Diabetes. Also, some other contributing factors include dehydration, poor nutrition, lack of rest when not in the workplace, and a skewed perception of risk (desensitized how much effort is required with routine job duties, such as lifting items).
Knowledge Exercise 3:
• Do risk factors impact the likelihood of injuries?
• How can we reduce the number of strains, sprains, and other work injury types?
Yes, the higher the ergonomic and individual risk factors are, the higher the likelihood of an injury and degree of injury.
The two most effective way to reduce injuries is to know that everyone has the right and responsibility to stop any unsafe action and to take the extra time needed to perform your duties in a safe manner and always use the right tool for the job. Other effective tools can be broken down into three categories, which include Ergonomic Controls (eliminate or reduce awkward postures with ergonomic modification), Administrative Controls (job rotation, breaks, eliminate forceful movements) and Individual Controls (education and training, foster a culture that encourage risk identification and reporting, act on near-miss incidents, eat nutritional meals and stay hydrated).