Hi Mark

There are a number of advice sources for driving ergonomics as again there are associations between MSDs and driving. Would recommend http://drivingergonomics.lboro.ac.uk/ but I have not searched for more local information and there may be some available. Some important facts are about getting the seat positioned correctly to give support to the back; the headrest is not a headrest but a whiplash prevention measure and certainly in the UK we were advised not to drive for more than 2.5 hours at a time.

Hi Hillary
The APHIRM toolkit does this. It comes from La Trobe University and what makes it different is that it covers physical risks, psychosocial risks, participation by the employee and prioritization of findings. It helps the organisation to prioritise what needs dealing with first, should there be more than one problem identified.

Hi Marion
Just across the ditch, the APHIRM toolkit in Australia, we are all watching that with interest. In Europe, Germany and Sweden are taking a much more joined up approach to risk assessment including diversity such as gender and age. In the UK, the current HSE strategy aims to build evidence of what works in practice.

Hi Peter

With regard to the injuries occurring, tennis elbow and golfer's elbow are most often related to twisting motions around the elbow joint (not giving medical advice here as not a physician). Firstly, are the individuals aware of the reporting process and are they happy to use it. Informing the workforce that for example, most of us will get mechanical back pain at some point in our lives. Secondly, is there a way to change the work to reduce the risk of the risks, work through the hierarchy of control and perhaps an administrative solution as in task rotation may work, as long as they are doing something with different muscle groups. Its about seeing how the work is carried out, identifying the risks and working with employees to develop workable solutions

Thanks Marion

Hi Peter

We may have regulated but is anyone checking that work has changed? My experience in Europe is that everyone does risk assessments but then the process seems to stop. Its unclear at the moment whether it is lack of knowledge of how to reduce MSD risks or concern about the possible costs of change. There seems to be a disconnect in the European context.

Hi Craig
There appears to be an association (although still a lot of discussion) about psychosocial risk exposure and MSDs. A number of pathways have been suggested in the literature including burnout, poor social support, low level of control and other factors. One of the original pieces of research on this was done in 2002 that identified the association. My question would be if we know there is an association, should we be assessing both physical and psychosocial risks together?
In answer to your second question - I came to work today and was so glad to get back to my office chair. I suspect we will have a few issues around discomfort. I hope that everyone is sticking to the getting up and moving around regularly.

Thank you for the invitation to this session. This report is part of a larger project which was carried out o support the European Agency for Safety and Health in their next campaign "Lighten the load". What surprised me most is that there is a consistent pattern globally of MSDs not reducing in the workplace. While the link between MSDs and psychosocial risks was written about in 2002, from the European perspective we are still assessing risks separately. New developments from Australia were also identified that may prove useful in other parts of the world. I would like to ask everyone on the forum, where is New Zealand at and what might work here?