Editorial
European Week: campaign on MSDs
Sheila Pantry OBE
October 2007
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work is devoting its 2007
annual information campaign to the prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs).
The European campaign on MSDs - Lighten the load - seeks to
promote an integrated management approach to tackle musculoskeletal
problems, embracing both the prevention of MSDs and the retention,
rehabilitation and reintegration of workers who already suffer from MSDs by:
- Taking forward European action on MSDs initiated by the first
European Week for Safety and Health at Work in 2000.
- Extending the scope of campaign activities in terms of themes covered, and
- Involving all 27 Member States, candidate countries and EFTA/EEA
(European Free Trade Association/European Economic Area) countries in
the campaigning activities.
Lighten the load is a decentralised campaign co-ordinated and supported
at the European level by the European Agency for Safety and Health at
Work, with implementation by Member States through a network of national
Focal Points.
The European Agency produces and distributes information and
promotional materials including leaflets, posters and factsheets in the
EU22 languages with more information on the multilingual campaign website
including an Information Pack, Ideas for action, quizzes, animations and
the latest Napo animated film.
National Focal Point organise and promote national activities
throughout Europe.
Organisations and individuals are encouraged to get involved, organise
their own events and activities, and help reduce the number of
work-related MSDs.
The Lighten the load campaign is targeted primarily at the workplace
level and at those involved in the implementation of OSH measures:
- Employers
- Workers and their representatives
- Safety representatives and OSH practitioners
- OSH prevention and insurance services, and
- Others providing assistance and information at workplace level
A key activity at the European level is the organisation of the Good
Practice Awards. These recognise companies and organisations that have
made outstanding contributions to preventing and tackling MSDs, and
rehabilitating and reintegrating employees with MSDs into the workplace.
In addition, European organisations are encouraged to become European
Partners in the campaign, and everyone is invited to let the Agency know
what actions they have taken after the European Week in October through a
simple online questionnaire.
The campaign was launched officially on 4 June 2007, and the European
Week will be held from 22 and 26 October 2007 (week 43) with a closing
event in March 2008. All current information on the campaign is available
at: http://ew2007.osha.europa.eu.
More information on MSDs is available at MSDs Single Entry Point: http://osha.europa.eu/topics/msds
Finding it hard to keep up-to-date with the avalanche of OSH
information? You can find quality guidance and advice produced by
organisations and government bodies from around the world in reliable
sources in collections of validated and authoritative information such as
FIREINF, OSH UPDATE and IRISH OSH UPDATE. These collections are
continuously enlarged as new information is published and contain
information that is not normally found on web sites.
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This month's OSHWORLD FOCUS is on Ageing workforces around the world.
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Don't work harder - work smarter! Be ahead of the game.
Are you aiming to have a zero accident,
incident-free and healthy year in 2007 in your workplace? Some would argue
that this is not possible!
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