(HealthDayNews) -- Who has the most dangerous job in a supermarket? Is it the manager who has to deal with irate customers? The butcher who has to carry a whole side of beef? Actually, the person with the greatest risk of injury is the bagger at the cash register.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services studied injuries at supermarket checkouts. As reported in the journal Human Factors, there are two to three times more injuries at the checkout counters than in any other supermarket department. That includes the loading docks, where they deal with heavy loads of merchandise, and even the meat department, where they use sharp knives and electric saws.
The risk at the checkout counter isn't getting a paper cut from the magazines, it's repetitive action injury from putting things in bags. Objects that are 4 inches wide seem to put the greatest strain on the fingers and wrists. Objects that are about 2 inches wide cause the least strain.
