Workplace ergonomics is getting a lot of nationwide attention in response to a sharp increase in incidents of repetitive-strain injuries resulting in musculoskeletal disorders, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Occupational diseases often mean repeated surgery, intractable pain, inability to work, time off for the affected employee and, ultimately, higher costs for the employer.
Below are four steps a company can take to address this growing problem.
Review tasks for risk factors: The first step to correcting problems is to understand the key workplace ergonomic risk factors, and review work tasks in your operation to see which ones apply. This can make a tremendous difference, since occupational safety professionals estimate that reducing physical stresses could eliminate as much as half the serious injuries that happen each year.
Control risk factors with engineering and administrative controls, and personal equipment, where it is effective: Engineering controls to improve ergonomic risks may include changing the way parts and materials are transported, or changing the process to reduce how workers are exposed to risk factors.
Understand how to make the work space work ergonomically: With any task, selecting the proper tool is crucial. The key is to understand the work process and employee’s safety needs. After identifying the likely risk factors in an operation, develop a safer work environment by carefully selecting the tools and work stations workers will use.
Use work station design principles to improve ergonomics: The following strategies typically yield safe work environments: make the work station adjustable, locate materials to reduce twisting, avoid static loads and fixed work postures, set the work surface to the particular task, provide adjustable chairs, allow workers to alternate between standing and sitting, support the limbs, use gravity, design for proper movements, consider computer monitors, provide simple dials and displays, and consider overall environmental conditions.
Monitors - everyone has their own suggestions for position, etc. If I had a 27" 2560x1440p screen, what do you recommend for position from the face?
Wrists/hands - I use a Microsoft 5000 curves keyboard. My problems were then solved after that. But voice recognition is a good idea. I will look into it. I used it when the software first came out. It was fun, but crude at the time (the year 1997). I'm sure 15 years has made it better.
Desk- I have a regular desk and a standing desk. Alternating between the two is a good way to break fatigue.
A colleague of mine just got a joystick style mouse after trying a few other designs. He loves it. The joystick itself doesn't move like a gaming one; the whole device moves just as a standard optical mouse would and the handgrip is fixed. The only thing is that it is USB tethered, not wireless.
Yes, the vertical mouse. I had one too. I could not get used to it. Oddly enough, the boasted "natural feel" did not feel natural at all. I have it in a box somewhere.
Perhaps in this case, a touchpad/trackpad is the way to go.
Excellent post Jim. I am assuming by the title you mean office environment AND factory floor environment. Prior to retirement, I was engineering support to three production lines; two gas assembly countertop lines and one gas slide-in gas range line. The number of "fatigue" injuries was remarkably high, in my opinion, and exceedingly difficult to solve with fixtures and tooling alone. We did incorporate automation to some degree but the best solution seeded to be rotating personnel so that a maximum of three hours per day on the most difficult job was the answer. I think this solution certainly follows from the four recommendations you made in you post.
To counteract tendonitis, I've occasionally used a simple adjustable velcro band that goes around the lower arm, just below the elbow. It works by compression, right on the tendon cluster that controls the fingers. There are several different ones available. I also find a touchpad even better than a mouse--except for the cursor movements of editing--and definitely can't use a trackball.
The most obvious answer to this problem, stop using the devices so much. We were meant to chase down animals, farm, build things... not sit at a desk all day with our hands in the same orientation.
Perhaps as the Microsoft Kinect and similar devices progress, combined with voice recognition, we will no longer have that issue.
I agree. As for me, I'd love to "write" and/or edit, change programs, go online, etc., just by dancing to Jimi Hendrix in front of a Kinect-equipped computer. Or whatever we'd be calling it by then. But that means we'd have to be able to program our own individual Kinect-type device, or somehow configure it, to respond to our own individual body motions.
Ann....I think if you had these gloves a mouse would be better.....I can't stand touch pads....or track balls for sure...I dug them out...they are called Smart Gloves. FYI
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