Rebacks talks us through the importance of protecting your knees from long term damage.
‘ Accidents will happen’ is a phrase that is commonly used in any walk of life but as anyone who works in the electrical trade knows, there are a lot of accidents just waiting to happen on a daily basis.
Despite protecting other parts of the body, many electricians or professionals who spend any length of time kneeling are seriously underestimating the amount of long-term damage they could be doing to their knees; often thought of as a simple hinge in our legs, they in fact support the majority of our body weight and besides kneeling, allow us to stand, walk, run, climb stairs, kick, crouch, sit, and stand up again. They are the largest joints in our body.
Each is made up of the three main leg bones (femur, tibia, and fibula) and the knee cap (patella). Cartilage helps lubricate bone movement along with fluid-filled sacs called bursa, which cushion direct impacts to the knees. If the tendons and ligaments that hold the knee components together become weak or damaged, the bones can become misaligned, resulting in pain or injury.
But there’s a lot of practical things that can be done to protect them: for example try not to twist the knee joints while they are bent to do the job; kneeling or squatting for extended periods places a lot of pressure on them; it is important therefore to relieve that by bending, stretching and flexing the knee and leg at regular intervals which helps the shock-absorbing tissues to better absorb synovial fluid allowing the joints to move more freely. Excess body weight is not surprisingly an added risk factor so maintaining a healthy weight is a good idea all round!
The key precaution to preventing knee and often as a result, skeletal injury however, is to choose the correct type of kneepad.
A great deal of research has been made into the design and construction of this specialist item of PPE over the last few years, especially by companies such as Redbacks Cushioning Limited which has been very successfully selling their SATRA award winning Redbacks non-foam/non-gel knee pads. They feature a soft and flexible TPE (Thermo Plastic Elastomer) leaf-spring set within a unique honeycomb matrix – this ‘Cushioning Technology’ distributes body weight evenly, elevating the knees to relieve back pain and reduce pressure on knee, leg, ankle and foot joints, whilst reducing the risk of possible injury from sharp or penetrating objects.
CEO of Redbacks, Cliff Lockyer, says: “Based on the fact that 50% of registered knee operations are accredited to occupational hazards, in 10 years’ time the total figure will exceed over a million people in the UK alone, many of whom will have damaged knees through inadequate protection whilst kneeling.
In addition to the unnecessary pain and suffering, the self-employed risk losing their income through injury and employers face losing business through absenteeism and the prospect of litigation for not providing the best possible safety measures for their employees”
For more information on Redbacks click here.
