MSDs and OSH in agriculture: the challenge of biomechanical risk assessment

More than a third of the global workforce is employed in agriculture – a sector associated with a high risk of MSDs. The varied nature of the work makes risk assessment a challenge.

A new paper describes how Italy’s work safety authority INAIL has helped standardise biomechanical risk assessment through the use of the OCRA — Occupational Repetitive Actions — checklist.

It also explores the use of a newly developed web tool to raise worker awareness of risks, such as repetitive upper limb movements associated with fruit harvesting.