Provide Members of the Workforce with a workplace in which musculoskeletal stressors and hazards have been anticipated, identified, evaluated, and controlled when they pose a health hazard. Contact one of the following for assistance in the analysis or redesign of workspaces:

• Division ES&H Team.
• Ergonomics Coordinator contact.
• Division or Center ES&H Coordinator.
• In SNL/CA only: 4-ERGO (4-3746).

Verbally report all occupational injuries/illnesses, including musculoskeletal stressors, to your manager as soon as possible (see "Reporting Injuries and Illness" in ESH100.3.3, Provide Health, Benefits, and Employee Services). 

Note: Members of the Workforce who use a computer for more than two hours per day should review the content of the Ergonomics website.

Analyze the following workplace hazards (tools are provided on the Ergonomics website):

• Lifting: Workplace lifting conditions under which nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed, day after day, without developing work-related low back and shoulder disorders associated with repetitive lifting tasks. There are individual and organizational risk factors that may influence the likelihood that an individual will experience low back and shoulder disorders. In the presence of any factor(s) or working condition(s) listed below, professional judgment should be used to reduce weight limits below those recommended in the TLVs.
  • High-Frequency lifting > 360 lifts per hour.
  • Extended work shifts: lifting performed for longer than 8 hours per day.
  • High asymmetry: lifting more than 30 degrees away from the sagittal plane.
  • Rapid lifting motions and motions with twisting (i.e., from side to side).
  • One-handed lifting.
  • Constrained lower body posture, such as lifting while seated or kneeling.
  • Lifting unstable objects (e.g., liquids with shifting center of mass or lack of coordination or equal sharing in multi-person lifts).
  • Poor hand coupling: lack of handles, cut-outs, or other grasping points.
  • Unstable footing (e.g., inability to support the body with both feet while standing).

  • During or immediately after exposure to whole-body vibration at or above TLV for whole-body vibration.

    Note: Instructions on lifting:

    1. Classify task duration as less than or equal to a cumulative 2 hours per day or greater than a cumulative 2 hours per day. Task duration is the total length of time that worker performs the task in 1 day.
    2. Determine the lifting frequency as the number of lifts a worker performs per hour.
    3. Use the TLV® table that corresponds to the duration and lifting frequency of the task.
    4. Determine the vertical zone based on the location of the hands at the start of the lift.
    5. Determine the horizontal zone of the lift by measuring the horizontal distance from the midpoint between the inner ankle bones to the midpoint between the hands at the start of the lift.
    6. Determine the TLV® in kilograms for the lifting task, as displayed in the table cell that corresponds to the vertical and horizontal zones in the appropriate table based upon frequency and duration.
    7. Consider load control at destination.  If the load is placed at the destination in the controlled fashion (i.e., slowly or deliberately placed), repeat Steps 4 through 6 using the destination point instead of the start. The TLV® is represented by the lower of the two limits.
    8. Refer to TLV® Tables.
• Awkward Postures: Placing of the body into positions other than natural/neutral positions, such as:
  • Placing joints at extreme ranges of motion.
  • Placing the hand or arm in a suboptimal strength position during the task.
• Force: Tasks requiring high forces from any part of the body.
• Repetitive motion: Tasks that require frequent repetitious motion, or a series of actions required for a period of time, which can lead to muscle fatigue or joint injury. (Reference HAL on the Ergonomics website.)
• Contact stress: Tasks such as those that use the hand or knee as a hammer, or that utilize inadequate handholds more than 10 times/hour for more than 2 hours per day.
• Vibration: Tasks which expose Members of the Workforce to whole body and/or hand vibration for more than the allowed time specified in the ACGIH handbook. 
• Environmental factors: Tasks with exposure to temperature extremes, climate extremes, or inappropriate lighting.