Eliminating office injury a top priority
from LittleAbout.com

Government, business, and individuals are re-evaluating work station arrangements, regulations, and routines as awareness grows of the consequences of repetitive movement and overexertion from common office tasks.

Of the 2000 hours spent each year at work, an increasing fraction is spent in front of computer terminals, leading to an increase in repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. Though not statistically documented by government agencies, arm, shoulder, back, and headache pain complaints are heard more and more around the office water cooler.

Supervisors are learning they can risk losing fewer workers to disability, time off, and worker’s compensation if they make offices more ergonomically friendly. Though budgets and management support of ergonomic improvements vary widely, human resource departments and small company office managers are beginning to address the problem as awareness grows.

WORKPLACE REGULATIONS
While present guidelines regarding the latest desk arrangements and office equipment demands are largely generalized safety precautions, the government, headed by OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is preparing strict and specific policies with the threat of enforcement and fines. The regulations could be approved by the end of 2000. In the US, where 300,000 ergonomic injuries occur yearly, businesses will have to design plans addressing the specific needs of the given industry. In Canada, government and commercial concern is also growing.

OSHA claims the plan would save businesses $9 billion dollars in worker’s compensation annually. But The National Coalition on Ergonomics, representing both large and small businesses, opposes regulation on grounds that employers will have to spend billions to make the changes. Some work-related injuries statistics show a downward trend, says a coalition spokesman who predicts the mandates will fail to assure the prevention of injury.

ERGONOMIC OUTFITTING
In the meantime, from receptionist desks to CEOs’ suites to the mail room, retrofitted work spaces are sporting ergonomic support devices that form a stark contrast to the lean, upright bureaucratic desk-chair-typewriter workstations that went largely unchanged from WWII through the early 1980s.

A NEW INDUSTRY
Daphne Thaung is an industrial hygienist, hired by companies to see how employee workstations can become ergonomically safer. “We improve morale, productivity, and just improve the overall environment of the workplace,” says Thaung. “You have to address the people’s concerns.”

Thaung has witnessed progressive companies implement a whole new way of thinking about on-the -job safety. “We are in an era of an aging workforce. “We can’t do things that we used to be able to do in the past,” she says. Ergonomic safety principles need to be implemented in all segments of society, and life, says Thaung. “It’s important that we adapt this not only in the workplace but also in the hobbies [and] personal activities that [we] might be involved in.”

Equipment as simple as cushioned rubber floor mats are being brought in for workers like mailroom sorters and loading dock clerks who are on their feet all day. Wheels are being put onto the bottoms of heavy containers that were once hauled around by hand or partially by trolley.

Employee education is also important to reduce injury, according to Thaung. “People are not utilizing all the adjustments, and so the next step of this is training people or getting people to be aware of how they sit, how to use the tool properly,” she says. One tool, called an ergometer, can be used to teach proper lifting. The device is strapped onto the arm so the wearer can hear beeping increase and decrease, reflecting the degree of muscle tension.

SAFETY IS GOOD BUSINESS
Since paying out disability insurance and replacing employees is expensive, precaution measures are generally thought to be in the interest of employers. Established companies and labor unions have ever-evolving manuals outlining policies and procedures regarding actions that may result in injury. Union policies disallow flight attendants from placing luggage into overhead bins, no matter how aged or feeble a passenger may be. Secretarial temp agencies teach new hires to refuse to lift or move anything that may result in injury, even if asked.

MINIMIZE STRAIN
Industrial hygienist Stephen Kowalewsky, who consults with corporations and conducts occupational research at the University of California, San Diego, recommends placing frequently used office devices, like the telephone and the computer mouse, within easy reach.

Computer screens should be about an arm’s length away from the eyes, Kowalewsky says, with the screen at or a little below eye level. Repeated awkward turning or looking up can result in day to day strain and long-term injury, he says.

Kowalewsky also says a footrest can take pressure off legs and back, and arm and wrist rests assure that wrists don’t bend but remain at the same level as the keyboard. Frequent breaks and stretching throughout the day can also reduce injury, he says.

Kowalewsky recommends workers experiment on their own to determine maximum comfort. His general principles have made a significant difference for many. Says Kowalewsky, “They will come back to us later on, and they’ll say , ‘That little change you made for my work station just changed my life.’”