Revue internationale de santé et de sécurité publiques

Lowering Back Injuries by Utilizing Self-Loaded Equipment for Adaptive Snow Sports

Abstract

Elizabeth O Neill*

The revised 1994 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s NIOSH Lifting Equation (NLE) is widely used to assess the risk of injury to the spine by providing estimates of the Recommended Weight Limits (RWL) for hands. This adaptive snow-sports (skiing/snowboard) study uses the predictive equations to identify lifting situations that put adaptive instructors at risk (>2.0 LI) for lower back injuries during a routine lift of a sit-ski onto a chairlift. Using NIOSH lifting equation calculations, along with predictive equations of spinal loads using the trunk and pelvic flexion, have identified that under the RWL’s calculated during our lifting activities, spinal loads exceed the recommended safe compression and shear force levels.