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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is today publishing revised guidance on the best ways to prevent and manage RSI and similar conditions.

Work-related upper limb disorders, which include conditions known as repetitive strain injury or RSI, can have a devastating effect on the lives of workers in a whole range of jobs, from assembly workers to journalists.

An estimated 4.2 million working days are lost in Britain each year due to about half a million upper limb or neck disorder sufferers, with each employee taking an average of 13 days off work, costing employers at least £200 million.

But these figures do not reflect the effect that these conditions, which can affect the muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves or other soft tissues and joints, can sometimes have on individuals and their families. In the past, many who have contracted them have been forced to give up their jobs.

The guidance sets out a management approach designed to allow employees to reduce both the risk and impact of ULDs in their workplace. The stages of this approach are to:

• understand the issues, such as what these conditions are and how they arise, and commit to action;
• create the right organisational environment to tackle them and involve their employees
• assess the risk of ULDs in their workplaces
• reduce the risk of ULDs, for example by: redesigning workstations and equipment, rotating or automating tasks, modifying the environment and the work routine
• educate and inform their employees
• manage any incidents that have not been prevented
• carry out regular checks to see if what they are doing is working

The types of workers more likely to suffer from upper limb disorders include: keyboard users, pottery workers, meat processors and food pickers, assembly line workers, machinists and clothes makers, construction workers, cleaning and domestic staff.

Launching the guidance at a conference at TUC headquarters today, Dr Alan Whitehead, the Minister for Health and Safety, said:

These conditions are not trivial, or the inevitable consequences of working life; they are as unacceptable today as the old industrial diseases were in the past. I welcome today’s Guidance on ULDs as offering hope to the thousands of sufferers, their families and employers, and providing a fresh approach to managing this painful and debilitating disorder.

HSE’s Elizabeth Gyngell, head of the programme, said:

It is much better for business if employers get treatment for their employees and help them return to work, than it is to replace them. We have to recognise that not all upper limb disorders will be prevented so it is essential that employers manage cases appropriately. This new guidance sets out how this can be done.

Even in the best workplaces, upper limb disorders can still occur. So when any employees are affected, it is important that they report the symptoms early, that there is a correct diagnosis, proper treatment and suitable rehabilitation.

Notes to editors

• Upper limb disorders (ULDs) include disorders of the neck, shoulders, arms, wrists hands and fingers.
• The guidance Upper Limb Disorders in the Workplace, was launched on 28 February, International RSI Day at Armed Against WRULDs: A conference on Upper Limb Disorders in the Workplace at the TUC Congress Centre, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3LS.
• The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has an ongoing campaign to tackle musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) including upper limb disorders and the sickness absence that results from them. As part of this the HSC has set a target to cut MSDs by 20 per cent and to reduce the number of working days lost by 30 per cent over the next eight years.
• The strategy for tackling MSDs adopts the principles of “Securing Health Together: A long-term occupational health strategy for England, Scotland and Wales”. This forms an integral part of “Revitalising Health and Safety”, an initiative by the Health and Safety Commission launched on 7 June 2000, by HSC Chairman Bill Callaghan and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. This aims to achieve, by the year 2010, the following national targets: reduce the incidence of working days lost from work-related injury and ill-health by 30 per cent; reduce the incidence of people suffering from work-related ill-health by 20 per cent; and reduce the rate of fatal and major injury accidents by 10 per cent. There is an additional target of achieving half of each improvement by the year 2004. HSC has identified eight priority areas – major hazards and worst-performing sectors of industry – where improvement is most needed to meet the targets. These are: construction; agriculture; the health service; stress; musculoskeletal disorders; falls from heights; slips and trips; and work-related transport. For more information, visit the Revitalising Health and Safety web site at www.hse.gov.uk/revitalising
• This new guidance: “Upper limb disorders in the Workplace,” replaces “Work-related upper limb disorders: A guide to prevention”, published in 1990 and reflects the changes in HSE’s understanding of risk factors and control strategies which have emerged from research over the last decade.

Copies of Upper Limb Disorders in the Workplace , HSG60 (rev) ISBN 0 7176 1978 8, price £9.50 can be ordered online at http://www.hsebooks.com or are available from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2WA, tel: 01787-881165 or fax: 01787-313995. HSE priced publications are also available from all good bookshops.

PUBLIC ENQUIRIES:

Call HSE’s InfoLine, tel: 0845 345 0055
or write to: HSE Information Services, Caerphilly Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GG.

Published on the HSE web site on 28 February 2002