Provision of technical advice and research services to accompany the preliminary implementation of the "Epidemiological surveillance program for musculoskeletal disorders", in the company Carbones del Cerrejon Limited, affiliated to Positiva S.A.

In 2011, a pilot study was developed in two production units, maintenance and production of Carbones del Cerrejón in Albania (Guajira). The objective of the pilot study was to validate the intervention protocol for the prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders of the upper limb and back (PIP-DME) in two Similar Exposure Groups identified in Carbones del Cerrejón Limited, in order to identify the ways of introducing and implementing it, so that Positiva Compañía de Seguros/ARP could offer advice and technical assistance to strengthen the Epidemiological Surveillance Program for MSDs in the company. The analysis made it possible to identify two central elements as the structuring axis of the protocol: on the one hand, the existence of asymmetries between the physical activity of the workers in work activities and in personal daily life activities was identified. On the other hand, it was identified that the characteristics of age and professional trajectory of the workers, who accumulate multiple exposures throughout their labor trajectory in the company, influence the diversity of individual responses to the workload according to the age of each worker.