Carpal Tunnel

[Dinosaur]

Maybe the answer is training machine drivers better so we don't wind up having to shift a million tons of 'loose' on every job? (apologies to the good ones, far too few...)

[Jack]

Training machine drivers??

Surely you mean train the archaeologists supervising the machine on how to direct a machine driver properly??

[P Prentice]

actually you can and should include troweling in your risk assessment, just as you should include every other risk such as shovelling and pushing barrows. anybody who has spent the day doing a repetative motion has the right to have the risk assessed and the hazard mediated if it cant be removed. if that means time limiting tasks then so be it. its the 21st century and there is no excuse for work related injuries on an archaeological excavation.

[Dinosaur]

Training machine drivers??

Surely you mean train the archaeologists supervising the machine on how to direct a machine driver properly??

Don't try and claim you've not had drivers who've never area-stripped topsoil before and spend your entire site learning! Although to be fair the construction industry probably doesn't have a lot of use for areas stripped to billiard-table quality without a bit of smoothing-out with the back of the bucket..... :face-crying:

[Carrickavoy]

its the 21st century and there is no excuse for work related injuries on an archaeological excavation.

:face-approve: never a truer word has been spoken!! Less with the love of it and the vocation and more with the workers rights.

[Jack]

Don't try and claim you've not had drivers who've never area-stripped topsoil before and spend your entire site learning! Although to be fair the construction industry probably doesn't have a lot of use for areas stripped to billiard-table quality without a bit of smoothing-out with the back of the bucket..... :face-crying:

Yep, but where possible those drivers should be sent back to the 'yard' and another driver be requested?

[Jack]

Originally Posted by P Prentice its the 21st century and there is no excuse for work related injuries on an archaeological excavation.

:face-approve: never a truer word has been spoken!! Less with the love of it and the vocation and more with the workers rights.

Hmmm, Although I agree that people should be kept safe from risks, and yes health and safety is very important (and very close to my heart.........ask Dino) A major part of the Health and Safety at work act is the word 'reasonable'

Not talking about carpal tunnel, but no one can eradicate all work-related injuries.

Eradicating all serious injuries and deaths is a noble pursuit, but are you talking about every scraped knuckle, cut finger, stubbed toe??

I may be being a pedant, but
..........using a muscle rips muscle tissue which later heals and grows more becoming stronger.

Is this a work-related injury.

Carpal tunnel seems (from what I've seen here) a long-term disease from repetitive action. So therefore should 100% be part of training/education.
Should all risk assessments include all the possible diseases/ injuries, conditions possible through manual work??
I feel not.
A risk assessment does not cover absolutely everything that could happen during a task, only the major identified risks (severity and likelihood)
So for instance, working on an excavation on a pipeline, death from plant is a severe and likely risk and should be mitigated against.
But being hit by a meteorite is a severe but so unlikely risk that it is not mentioned.

Neither is arthritis, white finger, bad back, dodgy knees (specifically).......But these are covered by the correct training in tool use/ manual handling etc.

More education, improved training, more tool-box talks, less pedantic paperwork

[Carrickavoy]

I had the pleasure of working in factories prior to entering archaeology. In these situations RSI was defiantly on the radar. Your charge-hand made sure you got adequate breaks and changed jobs, because quite frankly they were scared of getting stung with a claim or the wrath of the union. The same in office jobs. However, when I moved into archaeology I didn't encounter this work environment. In some cases it was the opposite. When a site was under pressure and if you were a fast, good troweller then you hammered away at it. It was up to you to carry out your own risk assessment. The same when I researched at third level, straining for hours over a laptop trying to meet the required word out put with no one except my supervisor asking about stress or strain.

Although I fully support education and training. I do worry that these remove the burden of responsibility from the employer and place it on the employee. Mix this in with in the present economic climate where people are desperate for jobs and perhaps more accommodating of bad work practices, add in the unscrupulous employer (they do exist) and you have a recipe for disaster. The consequence is someone suffering from a work related injury long after they have left that workplace.

Defo support calls for less paperwork!!

[Wax]

If repetative trowelling without adequate breaks is casusing what is classed as an industrial injury then why on earth are companies not addressing the problem. Risk assesments should pick this up. Or is it as I suspect the staff turn over is such that this type of injury which develops over time is mainly aquired by digging staff who are not with one company long enough to blame any particular company for their injury.

If you were assesing the risk properly you would identify this as a major hazard ie troweling+long-hours+few breaks= Carpel Tunnel Syndrome. This would be a high risk and far more incapacitating than knocking your knuckles on a bit of gravel or the occasional tripping up.

Incapacity caused by these manual handling injuries is severe and likely ( in the long term) and as such should be on your risk assesment.

For those of you who have been with one company for some time and have developed this injury what are the companies you work for doing about it? Did they tell you you were at risk?

[Wax]

Mr Realities latest http://http://conormchale.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/books-about-sex-hitler-and-television

Sums it all up neatley