Phone Ergonomics
Well, there are some obvious posture issues with people using their phones such as the neck stooped forward and there are less obvious ones such as wrist extension. When people hold a phone with one hand they typically use their non-dominant hand. This hand is typically holding the phone with either a pinch grip or a relaxed power grip (one to which the palm of the hand is touching the phone). The pinch grip puts greater pressure on our wrists and is not considered ergonomically safe. As far as posture goes, we want to keep the wrist straight and avoid this wrist from bending back (wrist extension) or up when in handshake position (radial deviation). These two positions if held constant with even the weight of the phone involved can lead to wrist issues.
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Ergonomics in Healthcare
Patient handling is challenging because patients come in various sizes and conditions. Sometimes patient capabilities expectations do not match actuality and thus the weight of carry can be variable. In addition to this, typically multiple staff can be involved which makes the load on staff further variable. Legs can give out for example, and if staff were to then have suddenly to go from holding up half of a patient’s weight to the full weight, this sudden additional force can lead to a strain of the back, shoulders, etc.
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The Ergonomics and Job Satisfaction Connection
The understanding the connection between ergonomics and job satisfaction is important to employers and employees. It is in fact, the most important factor on the individual level for reporting of work-related injuries is job satisfaction and control over their own success in a company.
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The Ergonomics of Mental Workload in the Workplace
In today's fast-paced world, it has become increasingly important to manage mental workload. Mental workload simply put refers to the amount of cognitive energy or resources needed to complete a task or job. Of course, a great deal of this does depend on how experienced we are in what we are doing but as we spend a significant portion of our lives working, it’s worthwhile to consider the ergonomics behind mental workload.
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Ergonomics Around "Hot Desking" or “Flex Desk”(Shared Computer Workstations)
Hot desking , synonymous with Flex desking , is a flexible desking arrangement that is becoming more companies as it utilizes space more efficiently. There was an uptrend ever since the COVID-19 pandemic as employees transitioned to hybrid work. These “hot desks” are shared by employees of a department and each employee can chose to sit at a desk of their choosing on a first-come, first-serve basis. The name is inspired by “Hot Decking”, a practice used by sailors working on different shifts who may share the same sleeping quarters.
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Exoskeletons and Exosuits: Reducing Workplace Burden and Injury Risk
Wearable robots are now a thing! Fortune 500 companies are adopting them in various processes. They are more commonly known as exoskeletons and exosuits and have are used with the aim of reducing the physical burdens on employees while minimizing the risk of work-related MSD injuries.
We may think of exoskeletons and exosuits as a future technology but they are currently enabling workers to go beyond, increasing output and reducing injury risks. Advances in ergonomics are allowing companies that have a manufacturing process, to likely find a use for this technology.
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How to utilize an SAP alongside an Ergonomics Program
The Safety Action Plan (SAP) is an essential part of any safety program, so how can we utilize it effectively alongside your ergonomic plan. To best understand how, we need to know that the safety action plan outlines the safety policies and procedures of a workplace. It focuses on the measures for preventing occupational injuries and illnesses. This plan is reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that it remains effective and relevant.
As we know, ergonomic injuries are primarily cumulative in nature and so the need to focus on the work demands and how they associate with human capabilities can be challenging. An ergonomics consultant will be able to identify the at-risk areas, tasks, departments, etc. of your business but the need to put these into action is key. It is important to keep a log of risk findings and make them into a manageable actionable list.
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What do workplace psychosocial factors do to a workforce?
The stress response is based on how the stress is perceived by individual workers. There are many theories, and these can generally be divided up into two general categories, positive stress responses and negative stress responses.
A positive stress response is associated with stressors that are achievable and there is a foreseeable completion in the horizon. They are the challenges that we know we can accomplish and provide us a general sense of engagement and determination.
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Ergonomic Elimination Controls
Ergonomic elimination controls are the ideal solution for the mitigation of ergonomic related risk. They measures designed to eliminate risks of MSDs by modifying the work environment, workstations, and equipment. These types of controls even beat out engineering controls which tend to come with a heavy price tag. Although elimination is usual a vision to which a long-term solution is sought for. Various other types of inferior controls (i.e. administrative) are usually implemented in the interim.
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Suppress ergonomic injuries before they progress
Ergonomic injuries are in a way sneaky since something seamlessly harmless can break the camel’s back! Injuries caused by forceful and repetitive movements, poor posture, and awkward body positions. These injuries are also associated with a lack of blood flow to the extremities. So jobs that require a lot of sitting or standing, such as office workers or factory workers doing the same thing in the same spot are especially at risk. So early reporting of ergonomic injuries is a training that is crucial to prevent the progression of damage to tissues and reduce the risk of long-term disability.
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The ergonomic concerns related to hand tool design
When should power tools be used?
When handheld manual tools are used for tasks that require frequent and repetitive force when performing tasks the risk of contracting an musculoskeletal disorder significantly increases. An practical replacement for a much lower risk method is high on the hierarchy of controls when it comes to solutions for ergonomic risk. Which is why introducing the use of power tools that can effectively make the job more efficient and reduce forceful motions. First, conduct a risk assessment before assessing the need for changes. When considering a tool, make sure that all aspects of the new tool have been considered (weight, size, etc.) to be sure that a tradeoff for one type of hazard has not been exchanged for another.
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Participatory Ergonomics
Ergonomic considerations are eventually going to end up effecting an end user so why not have these folks join in on the conversation. Participatory ergonomics is a great approach to designing workspaces as it involves employees in the process of identifying and addressing ergonomic hazards. This makes sense as they are not necessarily making decisions on their own, just providing valuable real time feedback to ergonomic specialists helping make decisions. Ergonomic hazards are physical or environmental factors that can lead to a cumulative related injury or illness. These factors include awkward postures, repetitive motions, and excessive force.
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More On Stretching
Experts recognize the benefits of stretching. It is a simple and effective activity that can reduce the risk of injury, enhance work or activity performance, and reduce muscular soreness. Stretching can also decrease the likelihood of activity-related injuries by increasing the length of the muscles and tendons that are stretched. If stretching is performed correctly, it can improve flexibility by increasing the normal range-of-motion, resulting in greater joint mobility and force generation, leading to optimal performance. The flexibility gained through stretching over time enables us to perform everyday tasks, such as bending and reaching with greater ease. Excessive muscular soreness, which commonly arises from a new exercise plan or strenuous physical activity, usually occurs between 24 and 48 hours after the activity and is known as Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness. Stretching can alleviate some of the muscular soreness associated with the new activity.
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Benefits of Stretching
Experts recognize the benefits of stretching. It is a simple and effective activity that can reduce the risk of injury, enhance work or activity performance, and reduce muscular soreness. Stretching can also decrease the likelihood of activity-related injuries by increasing the length of the muscles and tendons that are stretched. If stretching is performed correctly, it can improve flexibility by increasing the normal range-of-motion, resulting in greater joint mobility and force generation, leading to optimal performance. The flexibility gained through stretching over time enables us to perform everyday tasks, such as bending and reaching with greater ease. Excessive muscular soreness, which commonly arises from a new exercise plan or strenuous physical activity, usually occurs between 24 and 48 hours after the activity and is known as Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness. Stretching can alleviate some of the muscular soreness associated with the new activity.
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How Entirely Split Keyboards Can Impact Wrist Posture
The fully split keyboard was shown to have positive results related to posture, discomfort, and performance for all sizes and shapes of people. Ulnar deviation and wrist pronation, awkward wrist postures, was significantly improved. Participants did tent to change their keyboard configurations naturally properly and dramatically different from a conventional keyboard.
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The Ergonomics of Reaching Upwards and Over
The distance a man can reach determines the minimum height of guards or the minimum distance of barriers from the machines they are intended to fence.
Reaching Upwards
How do we answer the question whether a dangerous part of a system is fenced as to provide security away from the dangers?
Reach Over Barriers
It is one practice with certain types of machinery to use a fence guard to regard it as safe. We usually want to figure out how far that barrier should be?
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Tips for Standing Work #2 – Foot Bar & Perch Chair / Sit Stand Chair
Gravity is a constant, driving us down! So when people stand for prolonged periods of time, they tend assume some rather strange and awkward poses. One hip may shift to the side, or the knees will lock back. People lean on a desk, or their shopping cart, or a countertop with either their arms or hips when standing up.
This helps us get stability in our legs. In the workplace, these same postures held for hours at a time will result in injury - to the feet, knees, hips, back, neck and shoulders. The best way to obtain stability and comfort is to obtain a foot rest, or if you’re in the pub a foot bar.
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Tips for Standing Work #1 – Standing Mats & Shoes
Our bodies were not designed to stand, so this is a task that our bodies are not originally designed to do well. If you’ve ever stood on a hard surface for an hour, you might feel the outcome of continuous loading on the knee and back joints leading to articular fluid inside the joints to get pushed to the side. Blood naturally follows gravity pooling to the lower extremities and a feeling of pressure on the soles of feet.
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Ergonomic Considerations for Selecting An Optimal Conveyor Belt Height
The two considerations for setting conveyor belt height will depend primarily on the visual acuity required and downward force required. Generally, a degree of both will be required but the mechanics and posture related tradeoffs need to be considered. In a simpler example, if an object size is small there will be a need to raise the height closer to view, however, the tradeoff would be the weight of the upper body cannot use gravity so much to its advantage to apply pressure onto the object and allow the weight of the arms to relax the shoulder more.
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The Ergonomics Involved in Designing Conveyor Belt Systems
Conveyor belts are used in industry to automate the transport of goods and materials between stages of a process. It eliminates the risks of musculoskeletal injury related to manual materials handling since it greatly reduces the need for repetitive lifting and carrying.
Despite the benefits of a conveyor belt workstations, they can contribute to the development of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) if not designed properly with the end users in mind. Workers in unideal conditions to which awkward and uncomfortable postures are common for long periods are at a high risk of MSDs. Therefore actions such as reaching, stooping, twisting, and leaning are all problematic and need to be reduced.
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