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

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This presentation: oThe Agency and its European risk observatory oThe problem oRisk observatory data only some to stimulate debate: Women, young workers, healthcare, temporary agency workers, teleworkers oIssues to be considered - conclusions

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European risk observatory Provide an overview of OSH/MSDs in Europe (no benchmarking or country comparisons) Highlight trends on OSH/MSDs outcomes and risk factors Provide early identification of newly emerging risks in the workplace Identify areas/issues where more information needed http://riskobservatory.osha.europa.eu/

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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 : ophysical - force, repetitive movements, vibration, awkward postures oorganisational - low autonomy/job satisfaction, repetitive work at a high pace oindividual - medical history, physical capacity, age

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Most common recognised occupational disease in Europe (% of total ODs, EODS 2002-2005. EU15, except Germany, Greece and Ireland)

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EU data Recognised occupational diseases by gender (% of total ODs, EODS 2002-2005. EU15, except Germany, Greece and Ireland)

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EU data - MSDs (EODS 2002-2005) Trends: oMSD + carpal tunnel sdr increased by 32% from 2002 to 2005 (by 39% among women) oMSD + 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 omostly three diseases: hand/arm tenosynovitis, epicondylitis of the elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome

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MSDs occupational diseases data from Member States are variable, 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: The 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

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Costs due to MSDs (source: eurogip)

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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

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MSDs in service sectors increasing Spain - occupational diseases - MSD Source: Occupational Diseases File

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Spain body part affected by MSDs by sector Source: VI Encuesta Nacional (2006)

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Spain, main postures at workplaces Source: VI Encuesta Nacional (2006)

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Gender dimension activities where the majority of the EU-27 workforce were women in 2006: otextiles,clothing, leather + footwear manufacturing oretail trade and repair ohotels and restaurants ofinancial services ohealth care and social work

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Recognised MSDs EU data by gender (absolute number of MSDs and carpal tunnel sdr, EODS 2002-2005. EU15, except Germany, Greece and Ireland)

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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)

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Groups at risk women in manufacturing (EU data from EWCS 2005)

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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 estimated 6-7 million women lift or move people and 3-4 million report backpain

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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%)

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Groups at risk Women in the health care sector (EU data from EWCS 2005)

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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%)

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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 of young 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

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Groups at risk young workers in manufacturing (EU data from EWCS 2005)

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Vibration exposure notable for women and young workers (EU data from EWCS 2005 (for YW) and 2000/2005) Women YW

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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 oMore standing (76% vs. 57%) oMore carrying of heavy loads (37 vs. 24 %) oMore unfavourable postures (19 vs. 16%) oMore noise, unfavourable climatic conditions, PPE use oMore paced work (39 vs. 32 %) oLess job control (31 vs. 25 %)

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Temporary Agency work an example (Germany, SUGA 2006) Health problems of temporary agency workers oMore: 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%) oLess 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%)

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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.

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Points for consideration and discussion Include groups normally not at focus of attention (young workers, women, temporary agency workers) Consider changes 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) Include workers on shift work, night and weekend work, and part-time workers working time patterns are changing! Include exposure to vibrations Detailed monitoring is necessary, and important, also to assess gender differences Look closer at risks involving lower limbs Addressing the whole load on the body i.e. all the strains Tailor rehabilitation policies to include all groups

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National policies - how Member States address MSDs Examples UK-horizon scanning, issues for OSH: agency workers, use of keyboards and of mobile devices, increased wireless use (e.g. BlackBerry Thumb), Austria: 2007 programme and new OSH stategy: for health sector and transport assessment of MSDs risk factors, training of labour inspectors and development of tools to monitor exposure for inspection and for the enterprise level Germany: OSH strategy has identified the decrease in MSDs as one of its main strategic goals

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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.euhttp://ew2007.osha.europa.eu And the MSDs Single Entry Point - http://osha.europa.eu/topics/msds http://osha.europa.eu/topics/msds And the Risk observatory Webpage: http://riskobservatory.osha.europa.eu/

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Thank you for your attention!