This term is intended to cover all activities that have the potential to stress or strain muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints, cartilage or spinal disks. The employees selected for representative sampling analysis must be those who are reasonably believed to have the greatest exposure to WMSD hazards in the problem job, including each workshift, to correctly characterize and not underestimate the exposure of any employee in the problem job. Risk factors can involve purely external exposures, such as shock or percussion, that act on the musculoskeletal system. They can also involve intrinsic response to a load or task, such as lifting or rapid and awkward movement. The effect of a risk factor may be modified by personal characteristics, such as anthropometry and physical conditioning, or by concurrent or previous non-work exposure.
Risk factors can also involve work organizational or social factors.
Records include, for example, OSHA 200 logs, workers' compensation claims, WMSD-related medical reports and infirmary logs, employee reports of WMSDs or WMSD hazards, and insurance or consultant reports prepared for your workplace. Symptoms can vary in their severity depending on the amount of exposure the employee has had. Often symptoms appear gradually as muscle fatigue or pain at work that disappears during rest. Stiffness Temporary alternative duty jobs are assignments given to employees with WMSDs during the recovery period until the health care provider releases the employee from work restrictions. Work practice controls also act on the source of the hazard.