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Using ergonomics to beat the downturn economy

If you asked a room full of British newspaper journalists, “what is the opposite of fun and adventure?” I bet most of them would say “health and safety”.

This can be quite depressing for the health and safety professional, whose main objective is to prevent workplace injuries and allow employees to continue to enjoy fun and adventure for many years to come.

I think it’s ironic that one of our leading driver trainers spends his weekends driving a racing car and that a Cardinus ergonomics consultant is a keen climber. We have seen cases where poor health and safety at work has led to people denied these pleasures for the rest of their lives. At Cardinus we believe health and safety supports fun and adventure.

Virgin Atlantic even makes the safety briefing sexy!

The unfortunate consequence of the stories written by that room full of journalists is that they undermine some of the impressive benefits a well-managed health and safety programme can bring. Companies with a positive attitude to health and safety tend to have a highly motivated workforce and they are more likely to be healthier. Health, motivation and positivity contribute enormously to fun and adventure.

Every good executive will tell you that they also contribute enormously to profit.

A comfortable employee will be much more productive that one who is in pain or fatigued. They will make fewer mistakes and take less sickness absence. Ergonomics can not only avoid costly injuries and court cases, but also can increase productivity and add real shareholder value. The same arguments can be made for good occupational road risk, manual handling, environmental programmes, too. In today’s financial climate safe, healthy, comfortable employees could be the difference between a positive balance sheet and a negative one.

The real opposite of ‘fun’ and ‘adventure’

Injury, discomfort and ill health are the true enemies of freedom and enjoyment, and we do see evidence of this kind of suffering in the workplace. It’s the goal of health and safety professionals like Cardinus to minimise or remove these risks.

There are, unfortunately, many risks associated with computer use, including work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs) and musculoskeletal injuries.

WRULDs are soft tissue injuries that affect the muscles, tendons and nerves of the hands, arms, shoulders and neck. Musculoskeletal injuries are disorders of the bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles and other soft tissues of the body. The disorders may develop over time as the result of cumulative repetitive stress or awkward movements that wear down the musculoskeletal system.

These conditions are not new. Throughout history a variety of conditions have been associated with occupations that require long bouts of repetitive movements. Some are well known: tennis elbow and writer’s cramp, for example. But what about housemaid’s knee, trigger finger and dog handler’s elbow? These conditions still affect today’s workplaces.

The same technology that helps us to work more efficiently, smarter and more quickly is to blame. When we used old-fashioned typewriters, we took regular micro-breaks to return the carriage every few seconds. This relieved the strain of repetition just enough, but the action has disappeared thanks to computers.

Telephones gave us the ability to communicate without walking to our colleagues in the next room or just across the floor; email has exacerbated this. Nowadays instant messaging means we don’t even have to speak to our colleagues on the next desk. The result is an increase in discomfort and a greater risk of ergonomic injuries.