At a recent conference focusing on safety on the job, hotel housekeepers were invited to participate with a panel of scientists and ergonomic experts focusing on job safety. According to The Philadelphia Inquire, what is most pleasing to hotel guests — heavy blankets, mattress pads, extra pillows, etc. — are a safety concern for hotel housekeepers.

More and more hotel housekeepers are experiencing hand, arm, shoulder and back pain as a result of lifting heavy mattresses, excessive lifting and reaching. To measure the amount of stress on these workers, an ergonomics professor from Ohio State University invented a device that, when worn by a worker, measures the twists, turns, exertions and other factors that lead to back and shoulder injuries.

According to studies done with this device, "a hotel housekeeper, changing sheets and wiping down showers in an air-conditioned, carpeted hotel room, is as much at risk for a back injury as a construction worker, lifting boards and hauling concrete."

To read more about this study, as well as others done on the safety of housekeeping workers, click here.