Improvement of lifting heavy objects work.

In 1993, the Ministry of Labour and Welfare had to make compensation payments to 11,308 workers (equivalent to 7.22%) for their sickness caused by lifting and moving heavy objects. This figure tends to be increasing each year. From survey of working conditions, we found that most workers beaned their back in order to lift heavy objects repeatedly in each working day. Therefore, it is important to educate and train our workers to change their working habits in order to solve this problem. This study was conducted within a targeted group of 40 workers, aged between 20-30 years, whose duties are to lift soft drink cases. The study involved observing the workers' way of performing their work, interviewing them regarding the pain in different parts of the body, and testing of their muscle strength. We discovered that these workers beaned their back when lifting soft drink cases repeatedly and thus experienced moderate to medium levels of back pain. Moreover, their muscle strength weakened at the end of each working day. We then undertook training courses, educating them and showing them how to do it right. The workers have accordingly implemented the new method they have learned in performing their daily responsible tasks. Follow-up studies to assess the results were made continuously and we were pleased to learn that back pain problem has dramatically decreased. A comparison of muscle strength before and after work showed that the decrease of back muscle strength was less in the experimental group than in the control group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)