HHS HealthBeat (April 04, 2007)

Hard-working back

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Lifting boxes up can wear you down if you do it all day. A researcher measured it by having people lug boxes onto and off of a conveyor belt for eight hours.

William Marras of Ohio State checked the amount of oxygen back muscles got. His study in Clinical Biomechanics was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Marras was wondering when the risk of back injury rises.

"The need for oxygen as you’re doing a particular task is pretty consistent throughout the first six hours of work. But in the last two hours of the work is when it really increases. And we feel that’s when the risk really increases." (11 seconds)

Marras says a half-hour lunch rest helped.

And so would doing work other than lifting in those last two hours.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: April, 06 2007