Believe it or not but cleaning can actually be quite hazardous if we do not take extra care and caution to do things in a certain way so as to prevent injury. Its a known fact that 25% of all the injuries that are caused at work happen in five industries, cleaning happens to be one of them. Out of all the jobs that janitors do, cleaning or mopping the floor is by far the most dangerous and the one that leads to the most back injuries. Mopping the floor is the second highest cause of injuries caused on the job. It is second to more labor-intensive jobs like taking out the heavy trash and tipping it out.
Mopping injuries fall into the category of repetitive motion injuries which causes tendinitis and back pain. Back pain is not the only issue though. The shoulder joints and muscles can suffer as a result of injury from mopping the floor due to an incorrect posture or a mop that is too short or too high for the user. Never mind the fact that getting injured is not nice, there is also the aspect of having to take time off. Whether that time off is from work or from cleaning in general, when time is taken off, things dont get done which leads to more stress and pressure in the home. If its work that takes the hit of your absence, then the organization is the one that ends up having to spend more money to hire more people.
The biggest cause of mopping-related injury is the fact that many mops do not have handles that are adjustable. In fact, most dont have adjustable handles. They cost a little more and companies and homeowners are always looking to save money therefore for the sake of a few dollars they compromise safety unknowingly.
A lot of the time its the posture of the mop user that gets blamed for the injury but this is not the case. Even with good posture, if the mop handle is not the correct height for the user then there is no position at all that is going to make up for the lack of a height-adjustable handle. The best height for a mop to be at in order to avoid injury is somewhere between the persons forehead and nose. Having the mop at this height allows the user to maneuver the mop without having to strain their back. Even though an adjustable handled mop, like this one from http://amazon.com, costs a little more than a regular one, the cost is worth it. What price would you put on your health? Is saving a few dollars worth a back injury that could haunt you for the rest of your life?
