Risks Of A Growing Sedentary Workforce

As technology progresses so does the percent of sedentary jobs. High technology businesses are finding it essential to be attentive to the hazards associated with prolonged inactivity as it is the nature of the computer work.

We’ve all heard by now the coined term, “sitting is the new smoking,” a phrase Dr. James Levine with the Mayo Clinic. The World Health Organization (WHO) has physical inactivity as the fourth-leading risk factor for mortality, causing about 3.2 million deaths per year. The top three above it is high blood pressure, tobacco use, and high blood sugar levels.

The brevity of these long-term effects is surfacing in recent studies. Company environment, health, and safety (EHS) professionals need to act by incorporating strategies to protect the lasting health of their workforce.

Health Impact of Physical Inactivity

Levine found a correlation between physical inactivity and negative health consequences. There are links to the more obvious including obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. There are also correlations with not so obvious conditions such as cancers and mental illnesses. Levine emphasizes that the nature of the human body is to be active and moving during most of the day. Researchers found that sitting more than six hours in a day will greatly increase your risk of an early death. And while periodic rest breaks are needed to break up the demands of physical activity, when the balance of the day tilts toward inactivity, the body begins to work against its molecular nature. Modern office workers spend between 13 – 15 hours a day seated.

When the body is moving, metabolism is optimized, and this activity keeps muscular and cellular systems operating efficiently. It “actually switches off the fundamental fueling systems that integrate what's going on in the bloodstream with what goes on in the muscles and in the tissues. As a consequence… the blood sugar levels are inappropriately high in people who sit. The blood pressure is inappropriately high, the cholesterol handling is inappropriately high and those toxins – those growth factors that will potentially lead to cancer, particularly breast cancer – are elevated in those people who sit too much."

Studies continue to further bring home the point and EHS professionals are taking action working on developing strategies and implementing tactics to protect their sedentary workers.