A final word from the RSI Association

Andrew Chadwick, chief executive of the RSI Association, explained that the theme of today's conference in Nottingham was "RSI - a costly business". He said this applied not only in human terms but also financially.

"I think a lot of employers have not really looked at how it affects their business and how much it's costing them, and this is very important. The figures are startling," he said.

There was a parallel here to the use of machines in the early days of the industrial revolution, Mr Chadwick told the NetRisk. "Someone not used to working a machine tends to think that if you use it at maximum speed you get most out of it, but we soon learn that they break down if you push them too hard. What I'm trying to get across is that human beings are the same - they have an optimum as well as a maximum speed and if you run them at optimum speed you'll get more out of them in the long term."

Mr Chadwick said that when employers became aware of this they would "find that the incidence of RSI will fall away dramatically." He said it was in the employers' best interests to actually not expect the maximum amount of work in the short term. Instead "we should be going for the long term," he added.

Moreover, the people who were most affected tended to be the best workers, he believed. "In effect employers are investing in the training of their best employees over a period of time and they're the ones who are becoming injured and having to leave," said Mr Chadwick

But getting this point across would take some time, he admitted, and would call for a more focussed approach.

"What we want is more of these conferences targeting employers, which is not something we've done in the past. We need to find out what good employers are doing so that we can identify good practice and then advertise that to all and sundry. If we can talk to the bakery industry or the printing industry say, and ask them what their main problems are, then we're getting down to really practical information and advice rather than making broad general requests for employers to do better," he said.

Mr Chadwick said the RSI Association would now be considering how best it could approach different sectors of industry and this would probably be through targeted small-scale seminars, breakfast briefings and so on.

Feature article by Alan Osborn