About the risks of back pain and work environment

A study of 250 employees from mine work organizations laid the basis for statistical analysis. These organizations included five production and four service oriented worksites. Analysis shows that a significant difference exists between back pain severity and physical exertion at the job. The risk of incidence of severe back pain-in contrast to its sporadic appearance-actually tends to decrease as the physical effort involved in performing a task increases. Characteristics of working population revealed that there is a general increase in the rates of back pain as tenure at work increases. Viewing the data more closely reveals that tenure at the job generally increases the risk of more serious back pain as compared with that of sporadic sufferers. The risks of sporadic back pain are comparable, regardless of both degrees of effort required to perform a task and the type of effort needed. Only slight differences can be found by the type of physical, mental, or emotional effort involved.