Assessing risk and evaluating controls in the work environment

This lecture highlights two main research themes in the area of occupational health and safety: measuring exposure to musculoskeletal risk factors, and evaluating interventions designed to reduce those exposures.

Workplace risk factors for the development of musculoskeletal disorders are often characterized by cumulative exposure with variation in level, magnitude, and duration; this can present challenges to developing sampling strategies that efficiently assess that exposure.

High exposures that represent unacceptable risk need to be controlled with workplace interventions, but such interventions need to be thoroughly evaluated to ensure they not only reduce exposure, but also have favourable or acceptable impacts on work process and finances.

This summary of findings on these two topics will describe the ongoing research problems and suggest solutions through highlighted examples.