Tradies National Health Month – August 2014
Are you taking care of yourself?
We all know a tradie – your husband or son or even wife or daughter may be a tradie. You may have hired a tradie to do some home renovations or even solve your plumbing issues. Tradies do a lot for us but not very much for themselves. They are often the last on the list of their ‘Things to do’.
As a result of this the Australian Physiotherapy Association and Steel Blue have introduced Tradies National Health Month to educate and inform tradies and their families on safe work practices as well as the importance of full body health and safety.
- Fact: Every day 10 tradies are badly injured at work. This results in 3650 tradies a year on workers compensation.
- Fact: Nearly a quarter of all roofers, labourers and plumbers experience back pain, muscles stress and strain from lifting equipment or slips, trips or falls when handling materials.
- Fact: Falls from height accounted for 25% of fatalities (31 deaths) with ladders involved in 11 deaths, buildings in 7 and scaffolding in 7 (WorkSafe, Nov 2012).
- Fact: 15% of plumbers experience knee pain, muscle stress and strain from kneeling or slipping on uneven ground (WorkSafe, 2008)
- Fact: Electrocutions resulted in 17 deaths (14% fatalities) and being hit by moving objects accounted for 12 deaths (10%), 8 of which involved a truck (WorkSafe, 2010-2011)
Taking care of yourself is a very important part of being able to take care of others and also being able to perform to your best ability at work as well as other social activities such as sport. Accidents happen everyday but many can be prevented by ensuring that you advocate for a safe work environment and with education about work place safety and whole body wellness.
At Inspired Physiotherapy we can help to assess and treat your niggles before they become a major issue that could cause an accident at work. We can also educate you on work place safety whether you work on a construction site or at a desk.
Don’t become a statistic – – check out http://www.tradieshealth.com.au/ and join the campaign for a safer work environment.
Visit us @ www.inspiredphysio.com.au
