ABSTRACT
The cost of overexertion and musculoskeletal injuries borne both by individual workers and collective industry is enormous (Chaffin and Andersson, 1984). Efforts to reduce such injuries have focused upon improving the match between a job’s physical demands and the worker’s physical work capacity. Previous epidemiological studies of low-back injury have examined risk of injury in various industries using a variety of methodologies. In most cases, study results provide highly-limited descriptions of the exertions performed, or do not use indexes of stress which are used by ergonomists to evaluate or to redesign jobs. When biomechanical indexes of stress to the low-back were carefully studied, useful relationships between job demands and risk of injury were established (e.g., Chaffin and Park, 1973). This paper summarizes the strategy used to assess the risk of lowback injury in a population of municipal workers whose work patterns are much less structured than those encountered in the manufacturing industry.
