Keeping worker injury at bay
Hidden away in the rolling farmland of Hopkinton, unusual sounds can be heard: squealing tires, buzzing power tools, along with the occasional grunt.
No, it’s not farmers razing the barn. It’s the Liberty Mutual Group’s Research Institute for Safety, and those are the sounds of scientists and test subjects are hard at work. Whether it’s tractor trailer drivers perfecting their skills on the test track, testing hand tools for their impact on the upper body, or volunteers picking up boxes to determine the limits of workers, a variety of activities take place in the 93,000 sq. ft. haven for workplace safety gurus.
The Research Institute for Safety is the only one of its kind in the country run by an insurance company. It contains three distinct divisions: the Center for Safety Research, the Center for Disability Research and the Quantitative Analysis Unit.
The data collected here is used in a multitude of industries to lower the risk of injury and number of claims filed, says Institute director Ian Noy.
Volunteers perform a variety of tasks at the Institute. The results are used to study why accidents happen, and how they can be avoided entirely. For example, in the tribology lab, different floor surfaces and their interactions with shoes are studied to determine how slips and falls occur. The manual materials handling lab measures how workers react to labor intensive jobs, while researchers monitor the reaction of their lower backs to judge the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs on injured workers.
In other instances, psychological impacts are measured. The return-to-work laboratory investigates how workers integrate back into the workforce after an injury. The results of the study showed that workers respond better when managers took an interest in their recovery, and assigned tasks that neither overburdened nor underutilized the worker’s skills.
Noy says the multidisciplinary research conducted at the Institute in includes physiological, epidemiological, psychological and biomechanical studies. For example, one area involves psychosocial aspects of the work environment as a potential factor affecting safety, such as the safety culture of the company. Researchers look to find how a company's safety policies affect its workers and how companies can improve their safety performance.
The drive to create meaningful data doesn’t stop in the lab, however. The Liberty Mutual site also has a separate division that teaches adjusters how to determine the cost of property damage. Vehicles in various stages of disrepair sit on the shop floor as assessors calculate rebuild costs. Across from the wrecks sits a full mock-up of a house composed of different materials - such as shingles versus vinyl siding - to investigate the costs of repair.
When the research is complete, the findings get published in scientific journals, such as the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, after a rigorous review process. Like a scorecard, a white board hangs in plain view, showing which researchers have writings under review and which ones have been published. The published research goes to universities, government organizations and other insurers.
Much like a university, the Institute’s campus is chock full of international flavor. Among others, Harvard and Tsinghua University - considered to be the premier engineering school in China - regularly compare data and send researchers between the institutions through a unique exchange program.
All share the same end goal of advancing worker safety, Noy says. "If you can engineer the risk out, that’s the best result."
Jeffrey T. Lavery can be reached at:
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