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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Office Comfort Means Healthy Workers

With technological improvements, our workforce encounters conditions such as sore necks, aching backs and painful wrists. These ailments affect employees of all companies, large and small. Companies that are subject to the jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety Hazard Association (OSHA) may be subject to visits and/or lawsuits for what they call ergonomic,hazard complaints fromm employees. Companies that are not subject to OSHA can expect to learn of their employees who suffer from these ailments. These employees will lose work time and cause a very dramatic and negative impact on productivity because small companies cannot afford to overcome absences, and face increases in medical insurance premiums as a result of these problems. Every company should establish a program to educate employees to identify environmental hazards and to develop strategies to reduce hazards and monitor the results. As a company leader who wears many hats, you might include that of “safety officer” who will review safety practices and policies of your company. You might include informal sessions with some of your key employee who can develop prevention and remediation strategies. Ergonomics should be integrated into all aspects of your operation including: 1 the purchase of furnishings and technical equipment; 2 maintenance and installation of equipment and furnishings; 3 health-safety practices-policies; 4 loss-prevention strategies; 5 management and staff training; 6 new-employee orientation to the work environment. To limit lost work days, consider the following steps: Encourage prompt reporting of employee’s complaints of physical symptoms consistent with cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs). Physical symptoms of muscular skeletal disorders may include numbness, tingling, swelling, painful specific motions, and loss of strength capacity. Maintain some sort of log in order to study the kind of disorders that are occurring and their frequency, and note the attribution to specific tasks. Physical risk factors for muscular/skeletal CTDs occur when exposure is of a prolonged duration, of great intensity or high frequency. They result from: 1 static postures; 2 Bending postures which include flexing, twisting, or extending the spine, back end or neck; flexing, twisting, deviating or extending wrists; elevating or rounding the shoulder forward; working with the elbows out from the sides of the body; excessive reaches in front, across or in back of the body; 3 grasping or pinching activities of the hands/fingers; 4 repetitive motion without adequate recovery intervals; 5 forceful exertions; 6 contact pressures on parts of the body, reducing circulation and nerve stimulation; 7 cold; and 8 vibration. If physical risk factors appear prominently, you should consider modifying or redesigning work stations, furnishings, equipment or addition of accessories. Study the procedures and attempt to improve work techniques and habits. Rotate the staff to shift the work so that no one person is involved continuously with the risk factors. Provide personnel with protective equipment. Provide therapy and education to improve work or function and work practices. Consider retaining the services of an occupational health clinic with a staff that is especially trained to deal with ergonomic issues, thereby paying only when the services are required. Summary: Record accurately occupational illnesses and injuries associated with ergonomic hazards. Recognize trends and the need for intervention. Try to establish standard procedures for managing work-related illnesses and injuries, including guidelines for identifying the need for medical treatment and subsequent ergonomic modifications or controls. Finally, create work modifications or job alternatives during the recovery phase of an illness consistent with the physical capacities determined by appropriate medical personnel. As you perform a walk-through of your operation, observe employees at their work stations. Be especially mindful of stressful postures or positions. Be especially alert for a neck bent forward or backward or tilted to one side; hands grasping on an object tightly for long periods of time; back bent forward, backward or leaning to one side; wrists bent in an upward, down or side to side position; arms held in an extended position, especially reaching above shoulder height or behind back. Organizations like Quill in Lincolnshire, IL have created analyses and charts to provide greater comfort, less physical demands and greater work output. John Dowd is a freelancer based in Calabasas.

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