Repetitive strain injuries have only been recently recognized as work-related injuries. This means that if you already suffer from such an injury and it is difficult for you to work, you can file a worker's compensation claim. If your employer or the workers comp insurance company denies you, then you need to speak to a workers comp attorney. The following examples of repetitive strain injuries and their related jobs are some of the most common ones.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Typing 

If most of your days are filled with endless typing tasks, and you begin to feel pain and numbness in your wrists and hands, you may have developed carpal tunnel syndrome. Repetitive typing without effective support of the wrists and adequate reach for the fingers of the person typing results in this syndrome. Many times it will progress to the point where you cannot feel your wrists and fingers anymore, which makes working most available jobs exceedingly difficult. Carpal tunnel syndrome accounts for about eight million reported repetitive strain injuries each year.

You should be able to ask your boss for accommodations before it gets to the point where you have to file for workers comp. If your boss/employer chooses not to purchase these assistive devices for you (e.g., ergonomic wrist rest for keyboards, ergonomic keyboards, etc.), then you should file workers comp. Workers comp should pay for carpal tunnel surgery and physical therapy. 

Vibration White Finger and Operating Vibrating Tools

Vibration white finger affects the lower arms, hands, and fingers to the point where a finger or fingers turn white. The vibration from operating such tools as a walk-behind lawn mower, hedge trimmers, jackhammer, or vibrating industrial machines that require you to hold onto them while the machines are vibrating causes nerve and blood vessel damage. Hence, the white, almost dead-looking flesh on your hands and fingers.

Landscapers, lawn care people, industrial workers who operate vibrating testing machines and production machines, and people who work in construction or demolition often experience these conditions. You can ask your boss to put you on light duty or assign you to tasks where there is no vibration or jarring motion. However, the disorder's damage is already done and irreversible, so workers comp is in order.

Patellar Nerve and Bone Damage and Kneeling on Concrete Floors

In retail and grocery businesses, you are required to crouch and kneel on hard concrete floors a lot. It is part of the job when you are stocking shelves, unloading trucks, opening boxes and putting products on shelves that have to built from the floor up. Your employer should be providing you with knee pads or swatches of carpet on which to kneel to protect your knees for this kind of work. The carpet swatches or knee pads will protect your knees against patellar nerve and bone damage. If you find that you have developed these issues years after you worked in retail or grocery, you can no longer claim workers comp, but you can file a personal injury lawsuit.

Why You Are Entitled to Workers Comp Benefits

Workers comp benefits are available to every employee, with only a few exceptions in the agricultural sector. The benefits are there, if and when you need them. The above injuries qualify, under the law, for the workers comp benefits. When you have any of these injuries, disorders, or syndromes, and/or you cannot work because of the pain and numbness from these issues, you are entitled to file a workers comp claim. When you are denied, even though your claim is obviously legit, you need to find a workers comp lawyer and sue.