Comparison of regional policy in the prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders within 5 European regions of TIAM project

Abstract

In Europe, generally, there are various legal requirements for the prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) in the workplace. It is essential for organizations to consider these legal requirements when establishing, implementing and maintaining their risk management systems, particularly with regard to hazard identification, risk assessment, oversight protocol, and results review. This questionnaire seeks to identify good practices in terms of regional policy in the prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders by asking several important questions to all 5 regions participating in TIAM projects. In this paper, we not only described the design of the questionnaire and the final answers from the 5 European regions, but also have compared those different regional policies. The paper has concluded that most regions haven’t established procedures for monitoring correct implementation of ISO or EN based methods/tools/criteria in companies. There are still gaps between application and the standards. New tools, methods and guidelines for small and medium enterprise are needed to address the solution for prevention of WMSD. More efforts are needed to develop technological tools to address this problem in high variable and intensive hand activities