Workers at the Dutch vegetable growing company Verdonk Broccoli were prone to develop MSDs, especially when lifting and stacking crates and boxes. To prevent MSDs and to reduce physical strain and manual lifting, palletisers were purchased. As a result, there are fewer health complaints and absences...

The Dutch cleaning services company Hago Next was finding it difficult to retain experienced employees and attract new ones because the work is physically demanding. To reduce physical strain and prevent MSDs, the company has implemented a broad range of measures to improve working practices and...

HARM is an instrument for determining the risk of arm, neck or shoulder complaints when performing tasks that predominately involve the use of the hands or arms. The method helps you: gain an insight into what health risks the work may entail; identify the most important risk factors associated with...

This country report analyses national data on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). It enriches and complements the findings presented in the project’s final overview report, which covers the EU as a whole. These national data will add to knowledge of MSDs at EU level, contributing to the development of...

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 harvest and post-harvest handling of tomatoes is manual and labour intensive work. As this work involves a lot of repetitive movements, lifting, pushing and pulling, there is a substantial risk for developing musculoskeletal disorders.