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Nearly 20% of all workplace injuries include the lower
leg and feet. Add to this, widespread foot problems that
are worsened or caused by ill-fitting shoes and boots.
Working
conditions can turn small irritations into problems and
the constant pressure on feet mean there is often little
time for recovery. To make a difference to overall foot
safety and foot health preventative measures are
essential.
During Foot Health Week in 2006 the Victorian Podiatry
Association will be joining with podiatrists and
workplaces to improve better workplace foot health and
reduce injuries.
Work
Place Visits
What are you doing for
FHW?
Walktober
FHW
Resource Materials
Media Release
Work
Place Visits
Across
Australia and New Zealand podiatrists will be encouraged
to arrange visits to workplaces where they will offer
foot health assessments for staff and workers. If you’d
like to arrange a podiatrist to visit your workplace,
contact us at
apoda@podiatryvic.com.au or Ph: 03 9866 5906.
We are looking for Podiatrists to
volunteer to help out with the site visits and
participate in free simple foot health checks for the
employees. If you are interested, please fill out our
registration form and send back to us. It’s a great
way to promote your business and podiatry in general!
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What are you doing for
FHW?
As Foot
Health Week nears, we’ll be posting planned foot health
promotion activities on our
FHW Events Page. Stay tuned and if
you have a foot health activity happening during Foot
Health Week that you’d like to list, please click fill
out our
event registration form and send back to us.
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Walktober
 |
Walktober will be held for the first time in October
this year. The new umbrella program, developed by
Kinect Australia (formerly VicFit) in collaboration
with VicHealth, aims to raise the profile of walking
and highlight the broader community and social
benefits.
Walktober links a number of walking events and
generates discussion about bigger issues including
urban planning, livable communities and
neighbourhood safety - all of which are impacted by
walking. |
Walktober Newsletter
For
more information to go:
www.walktober.com.au.
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FHW
Resource Materials
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Media Release
Workers and employers
urged to protect feet at work
Workers and
employers will be encouraged to protect feet at work
during Foot Health Week from October 8 -14.
This year’s
theme is “Foot Injuries Can Cripple Your Business:
Protect Feet at Work”.
Andrew Kingsford
said the mining, construction, nursing, aviation,
agriculture, catering and restaurant industries would be
key targets of the campaign.
“It will drive
home the message that it’s in the interests of companies
and employers to take care of their employees’ feet and
that foot and ankle injuries which can be avoided are
actually costing time and money,” Andrew Kingsford said.
Andrew Kingsford
said recent research showed that on average foot and
ankle injuries in the workplace resulted in 10.8 weeks
off work.¹
The
construction, mining and agriculture industries were
where most foot and lower limb injuries occurred.
Yet many foot
injuries could be avoided and foot conditions could be
attended to before they developed into costly problems
for workers and their employers, he said.
These statements
follow research in a major hospital in Queensland that
showed that individual risk factors such as age, weight
and a predisposition for poor foot health were risk
factors for workplace foot problems, alongside
ill-fitting and inappropriate footwear.
This is
especially the case for people who spend long hours on
their feet at work.
Queensland
University of Technology podiatry lecturer Lloyd Reed,
who conducted the research among nurses, said his was
one of the nation’s first major studies looking at foot
and ankle problems among workers.
“What we found
was that foot and ankle problems were the number one
musculoskeletal complaint among nurses in the week the
survey was conducted,” Mr Reed said.
“They were more
common than lower back and neck problems.
“Even over a
longer period of 12 months, foot and ankle problems
remained in the top three musculoskeletal problems among
nurses.
“This is in a
profession that is already wearing sensible shoes.”
Andrew Kingsford said podiatrists
throughout Australia and New Zealand will be approaching
companies and organisations to conduct foot health and
risk assessments in the workplace as part of Foot Health
Week.
¹Workplace
injuries that caused more than one week’s absence -
National Occupation Health and Safety Database
2001-2004.
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