Workers in the construction industry perform physically demanding work. The physical strain is often high. This can lead to complaints to the neck, shoulder and back, and thus even to sickness absence and disability. Almost half of the absenteeism in the construction industry is caused by these...

The National Physical Practice Guidelines are depicted in a series of illustrated posters which include ‘tips and tricks’. The Guidelines specify when a certain action, for example the transfer of a client or putting on support stockings, becomes too heavy and indicate which solution is required and...

This website offers free tools to assess the risks of physical work load and a 5-step approach to guide during the process of tackling the present issues.

On this website, several tools intended to help / guide companies to assess and prevent physical load. The tools presented are: Hand-arm vibration exposure calculator ; NIOSH method, factsheets on both physical load and sitting, and a tool on how to determine a policy on physical load.

The main objective of the project was to reduce physical strain in order to lower the prevalence of knee and back problems and cut the rate of absenteeism. It wasn’t enough to change the working method of the workers but the task itself needed to be changed, by altering the street design (addressing...

In greenhouse horticulture, cultivation of strawberries is done on high racks, so-called gullies. The strawberry plants are at a height of 150-160 cm. To pull the blossoms through and clear out the plants, the workers usually walk on 30 cm high stilts. Because of the height and resulting insecurity...