According to the Health & Safety Executive’s (HSE) annual analysis of RIDDOR accident statistics for 2018/19, handling lifting and carrying continues to be the second largest cause of non-fatal injury in UK workplaces, after slips, trips & falls. Back injury/disorders are specifically responsible for 2.8 million working days being lost with the average absence being 14 days.

What these horrendous statistics do not reflect though is the impact that back pain can have on people’s long-term quality of life and ability to function normally once an injury occurs.

Unfortunately this situation is nothing new and although the principles of automating and mechanising handling activities has gradually reduced the overall scale of the problem, there remains a lot of work to do, not least in getting people to understand the residual risks and to behave appropriately.

Human anatomy is not always well suited to the tasks we seek to perform and we have long recognised that excessive and inappropriate manual handling can be one of the significant cumulative causes of occupational back injury, often triggered by over exerting our body’s musculoskeletal capacity. The result is pain and often some degree of mobility impairment.

However, there is an increasing awareness that the sensation of pain that our brain creates to help us realise we have damaged ourselves, and prevent further injury, is not necessarily just caused by the physical effect on our body. There is increasing evidence of somatisation (where psychological stress causes physical symptoms) being the main cause of back pain, in the same way as many headaches are actually caused by the “tension” or “stress” of the situation we are in.

If this is the case then perhaps we need to rethink our approaches to managing some handling, lifting and carrying activities performed by employees, as well as considering the range of treatments we provide (or advocate to employees) when back pain is present. No matter what we believe is the origin of back pain we need to continue educating and supporting our workforce so that they feel well and remain focused and productive members of our team.

Some top tips to maintain good back health and avoid back pain:

• Stay active – our body is not well suited to being sedentary. Develop a regular and varied exercise plan that uses all part of the body taking into account age and physical condition and avoiding over exertion.
• Practice warm up and cool down exercises before & after physical activity like manual handling. Athletes & professional sports people do, as this helps circulation and reduces the chance of injury.
• Maintain good postures – Think about your posture when undertaking activities that involve being in one static position or where repetitive movements are required for long periods. These will cause tension and fatigue in the muscle systems. Introduce other activities to frequently interrupt these tasks and allow your muscle systems to return to a “neutral” position (free from loading & tension). Ideally add some other movement that extends and resets your posture.
• Maintain a healthy and balanced diet and avoid being overweight – carrying excess body weight around is putting additional stress & strain not only on your vital organs but also on your musculoskeletal frame.

Backcare – The UK’s National Back Pain Association - a charity for over 50 years and promoter of Back Care Week have a range of useful literature and other resources to help you run an effective awareness campaign including some simple and effective exercises to prevent and manage back pain.

Gallagher Bassett Risk Consulting Division are equipped to offer training and consultancy on a range of occupational health, safety and wellbeing topics. Email us: riskcontroluk@gbtpa.com