1. MSDs - facts and figures from the EU and from EU Member States Dr. Elke Schneider, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

2. This presentation:

• The Agency and its European risk observatory

• The problem

• Risk observatory data only some to stimulate debate: Women, young workers, healthcare, temporary agency workers, teleworkers

• Issues to be considered - conclusions

3. European risk observatory

Provide anoverviewof OSH/MSDs in Europe (no benchmarking or country comparisons)

Highlighttrendson OSH/MSDs outcomes and risk factors

Provideearly identificationof newly emerging risks in the workplace

Identify areas/issues wheremore information needed

http://riskobservatory.osha.europa.eu/ 4. MSDs affect

Muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments and nerves in the back, neck, shoulders and upper/lower limbs

The risk factors, working alone or in combination, include :

• physical- force, repetitive movements, vibration, awkward postures

• organisational- low autonomy/job satisfaction, repetitive work at a high pace

• individual- medical history, physical capacity, age

5. Most common recognised occupational disease in Europe ( % of total ODs , EODS 2002-2005. EU15, except Germany, Greece and Ireland) 6. EU data Recognised occupational diseases by gender( % of total ODs , EODS 2002-2005. EU15, except Germany, Greece and Ireland) 7. EU data - MSDs(EODS 2002-2005)

Trends:

• MSD + carpal tunnel sdr increased by 32% from 2002 to 2005 (by 39% among women)

• MSD + carpal tunnel sdr accounted for 59% of all recognised disease covered by EODS in 2005 (about 85% of all ODs among women)

Focuses mainly on upper-limb disorders

• mostly three diseases: hand/arm tenosynovitis, epicondylitis of the elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome

8. MSDs occupational diseases datafrom Member States arevariable , but indicate that it is an important issue

UK- MSDs most commonly reported type of work-related illness, with an estimated 1,012,000 people affected

Spain:The number of MSD has fluctuated since 2000 between 12 884 to 20 489 (83,3% to 86,4% of the total of occupational diseases )

Germany: T he highest number of working days lost due to MSDs (2002: 26%, 2004: 24,3%)

Poland: cases of vibration syndrome are the most common chronic musculoskeletal disease

9. Costs due to MSDs (source: eurogip) 10. Groups at risk - Trends in employment(2004 data)

More than 66% of the workforce is employed in the services industry

Biggest employers manufacturing industry (19%), wholesale and retail trade (16%), health (10%) and education (7%)

In 2003, among the jobs created in newly born enterprises in that year, about 72 % were within services and 17 % in construction.

Employment has also risen substantially in the elementary occupations and in service workers and shop and market sales workers

11. - - + + 12. MSDs in service sectors increasing Spain - occupational diseases - MSD Source : Occupational Diseases File 13. Spain body part affected by MSDs by sector Source: VI Encuesta Nacional (2006) 14. Spain, main postures at workplaces Source: VI Encuesta Nacional (2006) 15. Gender dimension

activities where the majority of the EU-27 workforce were women in 2006:

• textiles,clothing, leather + footwear manufacturing

• retail trade and repair

• hotels and restaurants

• financial services

• health care and social work

16. Recognised MSDs EU data by gender ( absolute number of MSDs and carpal tunnel sdr, EODS 2002-2005. EU15, except Germany, Greece and Ireland) 17. Spain Health problems of workers by body part and gender

Neck ache significantly more frequent in women than men (32 vs.24 %)

Base :Total of workers Source : National Survey of Working Conditions (published 2007) 18. Groups at risk women in manufacturing (EU data from EWCS 2005) 19. Health care sector, Europe

About 78% are female.

+ 10% from 2000-2006 in the EU-27 as compared to the total: 8.6% to 9.5 % of all workers

Within the female working population it has increased from 15 to 17%.

About 3 % of the EU working population (or 6.8 million) are women who work in the health care sector and who have to lift or move people.

In the health care sector, an estimated6-7million women lift or move people and 3-4 million report backpain

20. Health care workers carry more than construction workers(Germany, BAuA survey, published Nov.2007)

2 in 3 have to carry heavy loads (compared to 1 in 2 for construction workers)

93,8% have to do their work standing

36% have to work in unfavourable postures (kneeling, bending, squatting, etc.)

71% have to do more than one task at a time

More than (76%) work shifts

More than half work nights (51%)

Almost all work Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (94%, 91,5%)

21. Groups at risk Women in the health care sector (EU data from EWCS 2005) 22. Health care workers carry more than construction workers(Germany, BAuA survey, published Nov.2007)

57% men and 64 % women have back pain

66 % women and 54% men have pain in neck and shoulders

37% of the women have pain in the legs

> 40% suffer from high emotional load (compared to 11 % on average)

More than 1 in 4 feel that they hardly cope (27 vs 16.6 %)

Twice as many as on average have sleeping problems(37% vs. 19%)

23. Groups at risk Young workers

Physically demanding tasks common among young workers which means that they are at considerable risk of developing MSDs.

ES: > 75% newly declared occupational diseases ofyoung workers in 2004 MSDs

estimated 4 million young workers in the EU under the age of 25 have backpain

BE: In a study of 716 healthcare and distribution workers (aged 25-29) 13 % had developped back pain lasting > 7 days within 1 year

24. Groups at risk young workers in manufacturing (EU data from EWCS 2005) 25. Vibration exposure notable for women and young workers(EU data from EWCS 2005 (for YW) and 2000/2005) Women YW 26. Temporary Agency work an example(Germany, SUGA 2006)

Most of the jobs are in manufacturing, unskilled labour, eg. in construction, and service jobs, including retail and low-skilled office work increasing trend (x 3 1995-2006)

About half of these workers have contracts with a duration between 1 week and 3 months

Working conditions of temporary agency workers

• More standing (76% vs. 57%)

• More carrying of heavy loads (37 vs. 24 %)

• More unfavourable postures (19 vs. 16%)

• More noise, unfavourable climatic conditions, PPE use

• More paced work (39 vs. 32 %)

• Less job control (31 vs. 25 %)

27. Temporary Agency work an example(Germany, SUGA 2006)

Health problems of temporary agency workers

• More:

• • pain in hands and arms (32 vs. 22%)

• • pain in legs and feet (29 vs. 22%)

• • pain in the knees (25 vs. 19%)

• • tiredness, exhaustion (48 vs. 43%)

• Less satisfied with

• • physical working conditions (26 vs 16 %)

• • training opportunities (46 vs. 30%)

• • type and content of work (21 vs. 7%)

• • opportunity to apply skills (24 vs. 13%)

28. Teleworkers- UK-horizon scanning

Currently, 8% of the workforce are teleworkers.

It is suggested that by 2015, 70-80% of workers could be, at least partially, working from a remote location.

mainly increase in people working in different places using home as a base, rather than working from home, levels of which have remained relatively stable.

29. Points for consideration and discussion

Includegroups normally not at focus of attention(young workers, women, temporary agency workers)

Considerchanges in employment patterns(move from industry to service professions, working at home, home carers, working from a remote location, temporary agency work, short-term contracts)

Includeworkers on shift work, nightand weekend work ,andpart-time workers working time patterns are changing!

Includeexposure to vibrations

Detailed monitoringis necessary,and important, also to assess gender differences

Look closer at risks involvinglower limbs

Addressing the whole load on the body i.e. all the strains

Tailor rehabilitation policiesto include all groups

30. National policies - how Member States address MSDs Examples

UK-horizon scanning, issues for OSH:agency workers,use ofkeyboardsand ofmobile devices , increasedwirelessuse (e.g. BlackBerry Thumb),

Austria: 2007 programme and new OSH stategy: forhealth sectorandtransport assessment of MSDs risk factors ,trainingof labour inspectors anddevelopment of tools to monitorexposure for inspection and for the enterprise level

Germany: OSH strategy has identified the decrease inMSDs as one of its main strategic goals

31. Where to find out more

There is more help and advice on how to stay safe and healthy at work on the Lighten the Load website -http://ew2007.osha.europa.eu

And the MSDs Single Entry Point -http://osha.europa.eu/topics/msds

And the Risk observatory Webpage:

http://riskobservatory.osha.europa.eu/ 32. Thank youfor your attention!