The Importance of Exposure Assessment in Blue Collar Jobs: Construction as an Example

Abstract

Exposure to musculoskeletal disorder (MSDs) risk factors are not only common but also omnipresent in almost every workplace. The purpose of this chapter is to describe how we can attempt to reduce the exposure to the risk factor in order to attain a reduction in negative physiological outcomes (like injuries and illnesses). Blue collar jobs are often subject to heavy manual handling and intervening these jobs with any new technique is burdensome. This chapter gives the example of construction job as a blue collar and hard to reach job in which an intervention was implemented in a systematic way.