Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is completely avoidable and there is some amazing technology available to ensure activities as simple as mouse clicking will not immobilise you, says Gilbert Griño at BAFCO Ergonomics, a division of UAE-based corporate interior solutions specialist BAFCO.
Research has shown over a million workers in the US lose days to RSI every year. It may be true that you’re more likely to kill yourself operating heavy machinery or crab fishing in Alaska, but who would have thought sitting at a desk could be so dangerous.
Many sufferers complain to doctors that they have a feeling similar to a nail piercing their hand, and these are sufferers of Bilateral Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which can be caused by prolonged periods sitting at a poorly devised computer set up. It can take surgery to correct this condition, and there are many other examples of avoidable RSIs.
Here are some tips to keep 2010 RSI-free:
Helping hands and arms: The act of typing and clicking may not involve much exertion, but if your hands are in the wrong position then over time mere finger work can tax muscles, tendons and nerves. As you type, your wrist and hand should extend straight from your elbow and parallel to the floor. This can be achieved by tilting the keyboard away from you so the space bar is higher than the letters. Also, keyboards that separate the right and left hands are more accommodating than traditional ones that force the wrists into an unnatural position. BAFCO offers the Ergonomic Mouse from Humanscale, which is specifically designed to fit your hand and take the stress out of ‘mousing’. Traditional mouse designs force you to grip the mouse between your thumb and little finger, which can strain the more delicate muscles in your hand and wrist. By relaxing your hand it allows the bigger, stronger muscles in your arm to handle the stress of repetitive movement.
Protecting your eyes: Even those who spend as little as two hours a day in front of a monitor can suffer from Computer Vision Syndrome, a cluster of symptoms, including eyestrain, blurred vision, headaches and dry, irritated eyes. A visor or an anti-reflection shield can also help, as can the use of blinds and dimming room lights to reduce screen glare. Specifically designed for today’s flat panel LCD monitors, our Humanscale Flat Panel Filters are easy to install and provide exceptional eye protection benefits.
Helping your neck: You should place your monitor directly in front of you so you don’t need to turn your head to see it.. When using a laptop in the office, elevate it to eye level and use a separate keyboard to type. Our rather cool Humanscale laptop holders do the job perfectly as it lets you adjust the display to the right height and offers a built-in document holder. Each holder requires the use of an external keyboard and mouse, which promotes healthy postures and ensures you’ll have desktop comfort along with laptop portability.
Back to basics: If you put in long hours at your desk, then investment in a top quality ergonomic chair could help protect your back and make your life just a bit more comfortable. You can reduce the load on your spine by keeping your thighs away from your torso and parallel to the floor. The Liberty ergonomic chair by Humanscale even comes with form-sensing mesh technology that offers perfect lumbar support for everyone without external devices or manual adjustments.
The fitter you are in general, the less likely you are to develop an RSI. So don’t spend your leisure time at home surfing the net in the same positions as the office. Also, stay active when not at your desk, and take frequent breaks when you are. Even a walk around the office can help promote circulation and ease strained muscles.
For many New Year is the time for personal resolutions of varying degrees of difficulty, ranging from beginning a diet, to stopping smoking, or even just being nicer to friends and family. However, Mervin De le Torre, interior designer at leading UAE-based corporate interior solutions specialist BAFCO, explains why our resolutions needn’t be restricted to the home.
“Most of us spend so much of our lives in the office that we should consider choosing some resolutions for the workplace that can help the environment and even save our company some money along the way. As office specialists, we had a brainstorm among our team and have come up with ten of the best tips to consider as office resolutions for 2010,” says De le Torre.
1. IT’S COOL TO BE A LITTLE WARMER
Once you’ve adjusted your air conditioning to the temperature you prefer, turn it back up by just 2 or 3 degrees. You’ll hardly know the difference, but it will make a big difference to your consumption. This two degree difference can save the company over Dh 500* a year. Also remember to turn your AC off when you leave the office.
2. BE BRIGHT AND SAVE MONEY
Energy saving light bulbs are much more efficient than the traditional version and last up to ten times longer. Next time your company needs to replace a bulb, recommend they take the energy saving option. The average office can save a very worthwhile Dh 806* over the year by making this switch.
3. CHOOSE FLEXIBLE OFFICE FURNITURE
Always consider products with highly flexible options as offices tend to change and adapt to newer technology, manpower and market conditions. Demountable partitions, open plan workstations, glass partitions, heavy duty ergonomic chairs are a must for any modern office.
4. DON’T STANDBY – SWITCH OFF AND UNPLUG If you leave your computer on standby overnight it uses almost as much electricity as it does when switched on. Remember to turn it off and unplug. You should also consider switching off monitors, printers, fax machines and copiers during lengthy breaks away from your desk.
5. ONLY USE ESSENTIAL LIGHTING
We enjoy plenty of sun here in the Middle East, so allow natural outdoor light to illuminate the office. Turn off non-essential and decorative lighting, particularly in unoccupied areas. Use ‘task’ lighting, such as angle-poise lamps, to directly illuminate specific work areas instead of brighter ‘area’ lighting.
6. GET YOUR RATINGS RIGHT -LOOK FOR ENERGY STAR
Most office appliances these days have an energy-efficiency rating. If buying, make the choice that’s the most energy efficient and always ask the supplier if they have this information. When purchasing PCs, monitors, printers, fax machines and copiers, consider Energy Star models that automatically power down after a period of inactivity. Also, use laptop computers wherever possible as they consume 90 per cent less energy than desktop computers.
7. GOING OUT? THEN TURN IT OFF!
Get into the simple habit of switching lights off whenever you leave a room.
8. DETECT OFFICE MOTION
Install motion detectors or dimmers to control lighting in frequently unoccupied areas, such as restrooms. It is also a simple job for an electrician to re-wire restroom fans to operate with the lights.
9. AUTOMATE LIGHTING SIGNAGES
Install time clocks or photoelectric cells to control exterior lighting, advertising sign lighting and some interior lighting.
10. KEEP COOL AND INSTALL BLINDS
It is not only enhance the design of your office but adding blinds, solar screens or shades to your office actually helps cool down the office.
The great thing about laptops and netbooks: You can use them anywhere. The downside: If you spend a lot of time in the wrong position, you’re in for a world of RSI pain.
The illustration above—from weblog Core77′s netbook case study—highlights ten common usage positions and the pain points you’re asking for down the road with each. (No one wants glowing red joints!) Interestingly, the most comfortable position, according to the study, is position #2 above: lying down with the device slightly elevated on the user’s thigh with bent knees. Now if only you could convince your boss that working from bed is a good idea. Case Study: Freescale Netbook Design at SCAD, by Dave Malouf [Core77 via Gizmodo]
Ergonomics is an important concern for everyone who worked more than 5 hours in front of their respective computers. Watch this very funny and educational video on how you can apply the concept of ergonomics on your office workplaces.
If you are in the UAE, BAFCO has an in-house ergonomics team that will assist you in making sure that your office can be a healthier and more productive work environment.
Actual account on how Humanscale Freedom Chair had helped a family doctor survived his serious back problems.
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I’ve got a bad back. MRI shows disc herniations at L4-L5, L5-S1 and when it’s “out” I’m a complete mess. I get shooting pain down my right leg and suffer with terrible muscle spasms in my lower back. I don’t sleep well, I can’t pick up my kids, exercise, etc.
It went “out” last June. By the fall I was desperate. I had another MRI to ensure there wasn’t something growing in there and when that came back negative I decided it couldn’t hurt to research my options in office ergonomics.
For anyone who’s looked into their options for chairs and keyboard trays etc., you’ll know that the options are not cheap.
My research online brought me to two chairs – the Humanscale Freedom and the Humanscale Liberty.
Contacting the company brought me to Mr. Joel Howey who kindly brought by one chair a week for test sits.
I opted for the Freedom, much to the chagrin of our Director of Operations who was nonplussed about spending nearly $1,000 on a chair. His measure of whether or not it was a good purchase was whether or not I ever opted to buy one for my home.
Fast forward to now. My back is back “in”. I’m exercising again and completely functional. Yet whenever I work at home, and I mean literally every single time, within half an hour of sitting in my chair (an Obus Forme) I start getting shooting pain down my right leg and an hour of work usually translates to 2-4 hours of pain. I’ve adjusted it every which way I can think of to no avail.
So last week I shelled out my own dough to pick up another Humanscale Freedom. This weekend I worked away, pain free.
Damn you Humanscale for making the greatest chair on earth so darn expensive.
Humanscale announces it has sold one million Freedom chairs by legendary designer Niels Diffrient. Thanks to revolutionary design and broad appeal, Freedom has become one of the best-selling high-performance task chairs in the world since it was first available to the market in 2001. Freedom’s emphasis on simplicity—and Diffrient’s belief that form flows from function—delivers unmatched functionality and ease of use, while its distinctive exoskeletal frame has made it one of the most widely recognizable, and influential, task chair designs in the world.
Freedom’s impact on the task seating category—and ergonomics as a whole—has been far-reaching. Widely considered the gold standard for task chairs, its influence is reflected in both new seating design and sustainability efforts within the industry.
At the time of Freedom’s launch, Humanscale was a $44 million company—a very small player in the contract furniture industry—and notably, one that had never before sold a chair. Behind eight-plus years of Freedom sales, however, Humanscale topped $200 million in 2008 and is recognized as the undisputed leader in office ergonomics.
The Freedom chair was the first task chair to prioritize simplicity over the ever-growing number of manual controls seen on other high-end task chairs. Its self-adjusting, weight-sensitive recline changed the way people thought about task seating and Freedom continues to be one of the simplest task seating solutions available today.
Freedom’s resume includes a laundry list of other “firsts” for task seating:
First task chair to offer self-adjusting recline
First and only task chair with synchronously adjustable arm supports
First and only task chair with self-adjusting headrest
First task chair to feature a gel seat cushion
First task chair to feature an exoskeletal design
Ahead of the curve for environmental sustainability, Freedom featured an eco-friendly design before “going green” became de rigueur. Its user-centered design allowed for the removal of a significant number of parts, such as the tension recline mechanism found on other task chairs. Its predominant use of 100% recycled and recyclable aluminum and overall recycled content of 62% minimizes the use of virgin materials. In addition, aluminum’s high (and growing) scrap value creates an incentive for Freedom to actually be recycled when the time comes. Its innovative, modular design extends the useful life of the chair by easily facilitating cushion upgrades and in-field repairs. And at 35 pounds, Freedom is among the lightest task chairs on the market.
In addition to receiving 10 international design awards over the years, Freedom has found its way into the annals of pop culture. Freedom made its big screen debut in the 2001 film Antitrust starring Tim Robbins and Ryan Phillippe. Since then, by set designer request, it has appeared in more than 20 motion pictures and will be seen in six more this year. It has also been featured in 20 primetime television series such as 24, House, Boston Legal, CSI: Miami, Medium, and Ugly Betty, among many others.
For more information about Humanscale and its ergonomic solutions, visit www.humanscale.com or call 800-400-0625.
About Humanscale
Humanscale is the premier designer and manufacturer of ergonomic tools for a more comfortable workplace. Our innovative seating, monitor arms, lighting, keyboard supports, and other ergonomic solutions are designed to improve the health, efficiency and quality of work life.
Humanscale products are based on the belief that when design solves a functional problem as simply and elegantly as possible, the resulting form will be honest and timeless. This philosophy has served us well: Humanscale was the only contract furniture manufacturer named among I.D. Magazine’s top ten “enterprises that help push design forward” along with other design-driven companies including Nike and BMW. And our Liberty chair was the only task seating solution featured in the 2007 National Design Triennial at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Liberty joined the Apple iPod and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jet, among others, as one of the most important design innovations in America.
Environmental Statement
Humanscale is committed to environmental sustainability and continually strives to design, engineer and manufacture products that:
Weigh less, requiring less raw material
Use fewer parts and manufacturing processes
Contain a high percentage of recycled content
Contain a high percentage of recyclable content
Humanscale is also a proud supporter of World Wildlife Fund, and our founder and CEO, Robert King, has served on WWF’s National Council since 1999.
Technology has had a profound effect on the way we live and work. As a result, we are spending more time sitting and using computers, which has greatly increased the occurrence of related musculoskeletal disorders. This article reviews a number of techniques for avoiding work-related, repetitive stress injuries and enhancing both the comfort and productivity levels of the workers who adopt them.
Only 10 years ago, if you wanted to send or retrieve a fax, you got up from your desk and walked to the fax machine. Today, with online faxing, a couple of keystrokes is all it takes. Years ago, if you wanted to ask your co-worker a question, you’d probably get up and walk to their desk or office.
Today, however, there are several less taxing ways to communicate. E-mail and on-line messaging, in addition to mobile devices such as iPhone and Blackberry, have taken the place of the leisurely stroll down the hall brandishing coffee and (only two decades ago) a cigarette.
The result of all these changes is that we’re spending more time at our desks, and more time on our computers – a lot more time. While 90 per cent of all office workers now use computers, 40 per cent work on their computers at least four hours a day.
But Dr Alan Hedge, Professor of the Human Factors Laboratory at Cornell University, warns that the risk of musculoskeletal discomfort increases by using the computer as little as one hour a day. Even worse, the risk of musculoskeletal injury is nine times greater when you spend four hours a day at the computer than it is for a one hour-per-day user. These statistics shed some light on the growing number of work-related office injuries, and the increasing importance of ergonomics in the workplace.
ERGONOMICS DEFINED
So what exactly is ergonomics? In a broad sense, office ergonomics applies science to workplace design to maximize productivity while reducing operator fatigue and discomfort. While the concept is fairly straightforward, its application is often open to debate. This is why it’s important to articulate the real issues facing workers in today’s office, and to debunk the misconceptions that typically surround discussions of ergonomics.
EMPLOYERS PAYING THE PRICE
While workers suffer from task-related injuries, employers are footing the staggering costs. According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) now account for one-third of all occupational illnesses and injuries. They constitute the largest job-related illness and injury problem in the workplace today.
SOME ERGONOMIC MISCONCEPTIONS
Most of us learn early that if something is good for us, it may not be pleasant. Unfortunately, the same logic has trickled into our ideas about healthy workplace posture and behaviour.
Despite what your mother said, sitting up straight is not good for you. And despite what the old ergonomic theories proposed, sitting with your body at 90-degree angles is not the healthiest way to spend a workday. In terms of workplace ergonomics, the startling truth is that comfort and health are synonymous. If you’re not comfortable at your desk, it’s because you’re probably sitting and working wrong.
More adjustability doesn’t necessarily mean more ergonomic. While the ability to adjust is a critical component of most ergonomic products, workers may unwittingly adjust themselves into bad postures and positions. Products should be adjustable within a safe operating range to keep untrained users from putting themselves at risk.
Since most people know precious little about ergonomics, when workers set up their own workstations, the position of the keyboard, mouse, monitor and copy holder is typically determined by available desk space, in which case the likelihood of an ergonomic workspace is next to nil.
Not all products labelled ‘ergonomic” are actually good for you. There are currently no laws or governing bodies overseeing the use of the “ergonomic” label. This means anyone can call any product ‘ergonomic’ – from toasters to baby pins to steam-proof mirrors. As a result, the term has been overused and watered down. Bottom line, ergonomics in the workplace is serious business, and product claims and functions must be backed up by serious research and testing.
THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT ERGONOMICS
So much for the bad news. The good news is that most work-related, repetitive stress injuries are avoidable. By attending to a few basic principles, employers can enhance their employees’ comfort and productivity and reduce their risk of MSDs and other costly injuries. Remember the words of the American Industrial Hygiene Association: ‘Ergonomic principles are most effectively applied on a preventive basis. Good design with ergonomics provides the greatest economic benefit for industry.’
Remember also: Environment affects behaviour. Proper placement of the workspace components (i.e., an ergonomically-designed workspace) will naturally encourage users to assume safe, low-risk postures. The top of the Empire State Building is not fenced in to keep sightseers from leaping to their doom, but to avoid the likelihood that accidents will happen. So too, the office work environment must be designed to minimize the risk for workers. In factories, industrial engineers spend hours analyzing the tasks performed by each worker to determine the most efficient and risk-free workstation layout for that worker. Why not the same concern for the office worker?
Movement is critical. Despite the old school of thought on the desirability of fixed postures, the overwhelming evidence today shows that fixed postures are inherently dangerous. “Any fixed posture, no matter how closely it approaches the optimal, will generate muscle fatigue,” says Marvin Dainoff, Director of the Centre for Ergonomic Research at Miami University of Ohio. “Therefore, it is important to build in flexibility to allow operators to shift positions easily.”
Our bodies were designed to move. In fact movement, more than anything else, provides nourishment for the spine, keeps the joints lubricated and flexible, improves circulation and removes waste products from the muscles. Conversely, when we don’t move, the elasticity of our spine and joints is reduced and waste products build up in the muscles, causing fatigue. While constant motion is obviously not the goal, frequent positional changes are vitally important to good health.
Minimize extreme postures. While movement is important, so are the postures you assume while performing your daily tasks. Neutral postures, meaning those that require minimal muscle activity to maintain, are synonymous with health and comfort. Extreme postures like abducted shoulders and extended wrists must always be avoided. Maintaining body symmetry is equally important, particularly with respect to the spine. Don’t sit for extended periods in bent or twisted postures.
Avoid contact stress. Focused pressures are extremely dangerous, causing circulation problems and nerve damage in more severe cases. According to OSHA ‘Contact stress affects the soft tissue on the fingers, palms, forearms, thighs, shins and feet. This contact may inhibit blood flow, tendon and muscle movement and nerve function’. Stress like this can be transmitted to arms and wrists by extended contact with the hard, sharp edges of desks and hard armrests on chairs. Likewise, the undersides of thighs are at risk from hard seat edges or simply seats that are too high.
Take breaks. Breaks could include actual work breaks, short exercise or stretch breaks, or simply switching gears and performing a different task for a few minutes. “Appropriate rest breaks, combined with stretching exercises, allow computer workers to sustain work at an appropriate pace, while minimising postural injury risks,” says Dr. Hedge.
Education, education, education. When all is said and done, a worker educated on ergonomics in the workplace is more likely to remain healthy. Such an employee will be aware of critical risk factors, healthy working postures, and more importantly, the warning signs of injuries.
One of the first steps in creating a stress-free office space is to have everything arranged properly. Keep in mind that your body follows your hands and your eyes. Position oft-used work tools in the Neutral Reach Zone – an area that can be accessed with a sweep of the forearm – to uphold a healthy posture.
A Peripheral Vision
Keep your mouse close to the keyboard and arrange both tools within reach. Leaning forward to type or to use your mouse negates the healthful benefits provided by a supportive task chair.
Safety Monitor
Position your monitor for optimal viewing – about an arm’s length away and with the top line of text at eye level – to prevent squinting or leaning to see what’s on-screen.
Light Right (or Left)
Put your task light in its place – off to the side opposite your writing hand. Doing so will allow you to shine the light across the page you’re writing on and adjust its angle without putting down your pen.
Stay Close to the CPU
For easy, in-the-zone access to cables, ports and drives, invest in a CPU holder that glides out from under the desk on a track.
Slatwall-Worthy
Attach binder, paper and pencil holders to your slatwall panel system to stay organized and clear clutter-prone space on the desktop between you and your monitor.
