The big thing they re being hurt from is bodily motion injuries, and that s mostly due to lifting patients, said Audrey Reichard, an epidemiologist at NIOSH who studied the data.
Emergency workers do a considerable amount of kneeling, bending and lifting on the job movements that leave them prone to back injuries and sprains. The vast majority of injuries documented in the federal study happened while workers were lifting a patient, and injuries to the trunk and neck were most common.
The second highest occurrence that leads to emergency room treatment is exposure to harmful substances, such as blood and body fluids, or being spit on. Exposure incidents account for about 27 percent of injuries, although they re often quickly treated.