Reducing Musculoskeletal Injuries in Vineyards

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Driving through a vineyard in B.C., we admire the uniform, well-tended rows that roll across the landscape. But there are many challenges in growing the best grapes, starting with the painstaking hours tending the vines as new growth emerges. It’s this kind of precision work that can cause musculoskeletal injuries (MSI).

MSI is a term that covers a wide range of work-related injuries, including tendonitis, sprains and strains. These injuries can occur in almost any part of the body — hands, wrists, arms, neck, shoulders, legs, and back — and affect muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels.

There are four main risk factors for MSIs, regardless of the workplace:

  1. Force — the amount of pressure needed to perform a task, such as pruning or tying
  2. Repetition — how often the motion or gesture is repeated when performing the task, or how often the task is repeated with little variation or break
  3. Posture — static (holding a position for a long time) or awkward (bending, reaching, squatting, twisting)
  4. Local contact stress — a hard or sharp object coming in contact with the skin for an extended length of time

These risk factors describe familiar aspects of some of the most common tasks in vineyards, and explain why approximately 45% of claims in B.C. are related to MSIs. Although these injuries may sound minor, half of them were severe enough to require a long recovery period. While a shoulder (or wrist or back) that has been injured usually heals, it may experience ongoing weakness, making a repeat or similar injury more likely to occur. These injuries affect more than just job attendance and productivity, they carry over into every aspect of a worker’s daily life.

Machinery can be used for some vineyard tasks, but many jobs require the care, knowledge, and manual dexterity of skilled workers. If the injury-inducing tasks cannot be eliminated, how can you reduce the chance of injury for the workers?

Tucking, suckering, and tending young plants share common risk factors

Our safety officer and ergonomist were invited to review with vineyard operations managers and foremen the tasks most commonly associated with MSIs and recommend ways to reduce or eliminate MSI risk. They looked at tucking vines, removing suckers, and tending young plants. These three tasks share many common risks factors, and therefore, beneficial changes to equipment or work processes for one task often apply to all of them.

Here are the main activities associated with the three tasks:

  •  Tucking: The workers move down the row to shift the three levels of support wires on hooks along posts and tuck the growing vines behind the wire at the right height to support their growth.
  •  Suckering: The workers remove the shoots that grow from the base of the vine. When the shoots are young, they can be scuffed off with the feet or cut off with brush cutters. As the shoots grow and become stronger, they are pulled off by hand or cut off with hand pruners.
  •  Tending young plants: The young vines are carefully tied to a post and wire for support.

All of these tasks require the workers to make repetitive, fine-motor movements, use pressure, and reach, kneel, and squat. The added challenges of weather conditions and the pressures of the growing season increase the chances of an injury.

Controls and training to reduce the risk of injury

After talking with the vineyard workers and management, and watching how the jobs were done, our ergonomist and officer made a number of recommendations to reduce injuries. They include using three types of controls:

  1. Engineering: Consider using different types of equipment or tools. For example, rolling seats that allow workers to have neutral back posture when working with plants at low heights and reduce the amount of bending or squatting that the workers need to do; and light equipment or tools that perform the task more effectively and allow for neutral posture (straight wrists, arms by the side, back upright).
  2. Administrative: Rotate between tasks to use a variety of movements and work different muscles — reducing the amount of repetition to reduce the chance of injury. Keep tools sharp to reduce the amount of pressure the workers needs to apply.
  3. Personal Protective Equipment: Recommend that workers wear sturdy, comfortable shoes that provide good cushioning and use knee pads if they kneel for any task. Make sure they use appropriate, properly fitted gloves that don’t rub or interfere with movement.

Training is another important part of safety. Workers need to be trained in the correct way to use the most appropriate tools as well as the most efficient, ergonomic way to perform a task. Simple steps like being aware of how they move can help them to avoid injury. These include:

  •  Avoid twisting the back or torso when turning.
  •  Alternate from one knee to the other when kneeling.
  •  Keep the back in a neutral position as much as possible.
  •  Keep the wrist as straight as possible when tying and cutting.
  •  Consider alternating hands when using a tool with one hand.

Include prevention of MSIs as part of a health and safety management system

Here are seven steps to include MSI prevention as part of a successful health and safety management system:

  1. Consult with workers at every step.
  2. Educate workers and supervisors about MSIs, the risk factors, and early signs and symptoms. Encourage them to report any signs of MSIs that develop.
  3. Identify the jobs with potential MSI risk using injury or first aid statistics and worker feedback.
  4. Assess the risk to determine which risk factors are of concern.
  5. Control the risk by making changes in equipment, processes, or techniques.
  6. Train the workers about the causes and consequences of MSIs, train them how to use the equipment properly and maintain correct posture.
  7. Evaluate the results to ensure that the risk of MSI has been reduced.

When workers have the right tools, supervision and training to perform their job safely, they stay healthy and can continue to provide their skills and experience in the vineyards throughout the seasons.

For resources on preventing injuries to orchard and vineyard workers, see worksafebc.com/agriculture.