Every year, technological advances provide companies with state-of-the-art equipment, tools and devices that transform the way of producing, allowing them to gain efficiency and productivity. In spite of this, the demand for work continues to be considerable in different sectors, where the physical and mental demands of the tasks are so great that they exceed the workers' capabilities, mainly causing damage to the locomotor system.
Unfortunately, these injuries, known as musculoskeletal pathologies, mainly affect the spine and upper extremities, and are very common in the workplace. This problem is present in the primary sector (agriculture, fishing and mining), in the secondary sector (manufacturing, chemical, textile, iron and steel, production of consumer goods, food, etc.) and in the tertiary sector (cleaning services, hotel and catering, administration, etc.) (Álvarez-Casado et al, 2009) (Álvarez-Casado et al, 2009).
This is where Ergonomics enters as a proposal to reduce the incidence of these pathologies, which has the main purpose of achieving a balance between the productivity of the system and the occupational health of workers, this is achieved through tools (methodologies) that really allow to determine the mathematical probability of the occurrence or not of the damage.
Nowadays, on the web you can find endless information, formats and others related to methodologies without rigorous or reliable criteria that are erroneously used for the evaluation of ergonomic risks.
For this, every health and safety professional must be clear about the following principle: always use methodologies with reliability and validity that allow demonstrating the association between the level of ergonomic risk and the probability of occurrence of musculoskeletal damage. In Ecuador, the National Institute for Standardization (INEN) has transposed international ISO standards related to ergonomics such as: ISO TR 12295, ISO 11228 in its 3 parts, ISO 14738, among others. These documents contain methodologies with the necessary validity and reliability to determine the probability of damage due to exposure to physical ergonomic risks.
For all the above mentioned, it is important and convenient to resort to scientific information that allows to demonstrate a technical, practical, real and achievable management so that the results are reliable and contribute as a basis for the redesign of jobs, in such a way that they have a positive impact on the health of the workers and the productivity of the system.
Edwin Regalado
Teacher
Master's Degree in Occupational Ergonomics
