Risk management means many things to many people, last month we looked at fire ducting and how the adherence to correct standards can not only help reduce the risk of fire but also reduce building costs.   This month we look at an occupational health and safety issue, namely RSI.

Occupational health and safety is a well recognised risk with a structured cost basis applied to its management.   Correct management and attention to detail can result in significant savings for a business, in addition in most states of Australia considerable rewards can be gained by adherence to the standards and guidelines.

The research for this article was carried out by Ms Lisa Farnell, Lisa is presently a store manager for Woolworths/Safeway, at the time of her project she was in the occupation health and safety unit of the company.

The aim of the research was to determine what causes repetitive strain injuries in the workplace and what factors contribute to the duration of the injury.    Several possibilities were considered, these were:-

*  management of the employees;

*  level of knowledge of the operator and management;

* morale;

* work methods and

* the individual operator.

The majority of sufferers tend to be women, purely by  virtue of the fact that they are still to this day located in the more "traditional" female roles in manufacturing, retail and in offices operating keyboards.  Suspicion has surround this injury since it was first identified and the 1980's saw an explosion of claims.  This explosion lead to a degree of harshness in the treatment of the injured, today however more enlightened views predominate.

RSI is a collective term that can be used to describe, tenosynovitis, epiconmdilytis, carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, bursitis and occupation overuse syndrome.   The RSI taskforce of the Australian Public Service recommended that the term RSI be retained and used to describe the above injuries,  further it defined RSI as follows:-

"RSI is taken to be a collective term for those conditions with recurrent or persistent pain, disability or loss of function in any part of the body, mainly in the limbs and particularly in the upper limbs and neck.  These conditions are usually associated with repetitive movement and/or fixed posture and related to, or aggravated by, an occupational setting.     All of the conditions are characterised by pain, with or without physical manifestations."  (Stevens, 1987.  P2).

As the understanding of RSI increased and the injury was recognised as a genuine one the incidence decreased, however it did not go away.  The reduction may be attributable to several factors including:-

*  correct diagnosis early in the injury;

*  better management of the injury, claim and workplace;

*   earlier reporting;

*   training in the correct use of equipment;

*   rehabilitation assistance and

*   tighter compensation laws.

The problem now faced by industry is that although the current claims are recognised as  genuine injuries, for some claimants the RSI stigma is a contributor to the dilapidating nature of the injury and, management in most cases is still unsure as to what causes RSI,  how can it be prevented and how to manage functional processes at the workplace.

Current literature mainly focuses on the ergonomic design of the workstation and pays little attention to possible other factors which may contribute to the onset and/or duration of RSI.   The problem has been to convince management that a problem exists, once management recognised that the syndrome was genuine, it could be expected that change would follow.   Alas across industry the opposite has been the case.

Most industries now recognise the genuine nature of RSI, however they appear to be slow or even reluctant to change work practices, this is potentially due to the fact that we are not sure what factors and conditions really lead to the onset of RSI type injuries.

Once we understand how repetitive strain injuries develop within particular industries we can determine how to prevent further injuries and consequently lower claims.   This quest for answers must be embraced by management at all levels.  Correct communications will assist in the timely identification of the injury and consequently claims management will be enhanced to the benefit of the employee and the company.  Management will directly benefit by increased knowledge which may lead to better and more expedient control of claims, both new and existing.

The collective knowledge gained and shared by industry at all levels will help in the development of useful guidelines that assist decision making as regards occupational health and safety issues.   Furthermore,  an understanding of the situation and application of better management principles can potentially lead to a reduction in the number of injuries and claims.   The flow on effects can be increased morale in the workplace and a reduction  of costs to the organisation.