Ergonomic hazard

What is Ergonomics?
- It is the science of fitting jobs to workers instead of trying to get the worker to fit the job. It focuses
on designing workstations, tools and work tasks for safety, efficiency and comfort. Ergonomics
seeks to decrease fatigue and injuries, along with increasing comfort, productivity, job satisfaction
and safety, because work injuries are not inevitable and a well-designed job should not hurt you.
Why is Ergonomic important?
- It is important because when you’re doing a job and your body is stressed by an awkward posture,
extreme temperature, or repeated movement your musculoskeletal system is affected. Your body
may begin to have symptoms such as fatigue, discomfort, and pain, which can be the first signs of
a musculoskeletal disorder.
ADDITIONAL INFO!!!!
What are Musculoskeletal Disorders or MSDs?
- Musculoskeletal disorders or MSDs are cumulative and chronic injuries of the soft tissue-muscles,
tendons, ligaments, nerves, joints, and blood vessels. The body has limits and can fail or wear out
when abused or misused. MSDs are defined as injuries to muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints,
nerves and discs that are caused or aggravated by our actions and/or environment that does not
follow safe and healthy work practices.
Symptoms of MSDs:
- Pain
- Weakness
- Stiffness
- Sensitivity
- Swelling
- Burning sensation
- Tingling
- Drowsiness
- Difficulty moving
- Clumsiness
END OF ADDITIONAL INFO!!!!
Human factors and ergonomic hazards
What is meant by the term human factors?
- A profession to help ensure that equipment & systems are safe & easy to operate by human beings.
A human factors researcher gathers and analyzes data on human beings.
- How they work, their size, capabilities & limitations.
A human factors engineer works with designers.
 - To incorporate data into designs to make sure people can operate and maintain the product or
system.
Human factors experts are trained in:
- Psychology, engineering, biology, medicine, education, and physiology.
Human factors in Action
- Predesign Analysis: Human factors professionals conduct research to answer such questions as:
o What is the best way for humans to interact with computers?
o What factors contribute to fatigue in an office environment?
o How can designers overcome these factors?
- Preliminary Design: Study of machine and human capabilities to determine which tasks should be
undertaken manually and which should be automated.
- Detailed Design and Development: Building up prototype equipment.
- Test and Evaluation: Testing actual humans in using the prototype equipment or system.
Human Factors and Safety
- Hazard Elimination by Design: Intelligent design can reduce human errors by providing controls
that are simple to understand and operate.
- Safety Devices: such as emergency cutoff switches can reduce human error on the job,
correspondingly reducing the chances of an accident.
- Warning Devices: Color, location & wording of warning devices; pitch & volume of warning
signals; design of caution markings and video displays for reducing human error
ADDITIONAL INFO!!!!
- Ergonomic risk factors are workplace situations that cause wear and tear on the body and can cause
injury. These include repetition, awkward posture, forceful motion, stationary position, direct
pressure, vibration, extreme temperature, noise, and work stress. Multiple factors increases the risk
of developing MSD (muscular skeleton disorder).
The following are factors for developing an MSD:
- Force
- Heavy lifting
- Push or pull
- Carrying
- Gripping
- Awkward or prolonged postures
- Repetitive activities
- Overhead work
- Contact stress
- Vibration
END OF ADDITONAL INFO!!!!
Factors associated with physical stress
Seven Variables can influence the amount of physical stress experienced on the job:
 - Sitting versus standing.
- Stationary versus moveable/mobile.
- Large demand for strength/power vs. small demand for strength/power.
- Good horizontal work area vs. bad horizontal work area.
- Good vertical work area vs. bad vertical work area
- Non-repetitive motion vs. repetitive motion
- No negative environmental factors vs. negative environmental factors

Hazard prevention and control

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Some ways to reduce Ergonomic Risks
- Engineering Improvements
o Engineering improvements include rearranging, modifying, redesigning, or replacing tools,
equipment, workstations, packaging, parts, or products. These improvements can be very
effective because they may reduce or eliminate contributing factors. (For example, if your
job requires sitting for long periods of time, having an adjustable seat or foot stool so that
your knees are higher than your hips helps protect your lower back.)
- Administrative Improvements
o Administrative improvements include changing work practices or the way work is
organized.
▪ Providing variety in jobs
▪ Adjusting work schedules and work pace
▪ Providing recovery time (i.e., muscle relaxation time)
▪ Modifying work practices
▪ Ensuring regular housekeeping and maintenance of work spaces, tools, and
equipment
▪ Encouraging exercise
- Personal Protective Equipment
o Safety gear, or personal protective equipment (PPE), includes gloves, knee and elbow pads,
footwear, and other items that employees wear.
TRAINING AND EDUCATION
Training is a critical element of a successful occupational ergonomics program. Learning
opportunities provide people with the means necessary to complete the steps of the ergonomics
improvement process. These key steps include identifying risk, reducing risk, verifying risk reduction,
managing injuries and maintaining program sustainability.
Reason for Training
The sole purpose of training in ergonomics is to provide people with the skills, knowledge, abilities and
tools to accomplish their designated responsibilities. These people form the support infrastructure for your
ergonomics process. The responsibilities vary with each different role in the process (see chart).
Before you begin training, plan what you want to accomplish. This includes defining the ergonomic
improvement process and process measures for your site or organization and establishing the key roles
and responsibilities of people supporting the process. Use this information to determine the need for
training, the learning objectives and training content.
Training Sequence
The recommended sequence is as follows:
1. Start by educating senior managers to obtain their sponsorship, guide them into leadership roles
and establish direction and goals for the ergonomics process.
2. Train the person or persons responsible for managing the ergonomics process. The role of the
ergonomics process manager is to coordinate and deploy all elements of the process. To
accomplish this, he or she must understand the site's or organization's goals and expectations for
the ergonomics process, identify supporting roles and develop plans for implementation and
communication.
3. Develop the skills, abilities and confidence of ergonomics team members, engineering and
maintenance personnel, and medical/workers' compensation resources. Effective skills training
will establish a small team of resident experts who can address tough ergonomic challenges
brought to them by managers and supervisors.
• Ergonomics team members typically have responsibility for assessing ergonomic
risks and leading improvement efforts. To facilitate these tasks, they must be
provided with easy-to-use tools and methods for risk assessment, risk prioritization,
root cause analysis and a process for implementing changes.
• Engineering and maintenance personnel have a critical role in designing and
installing workstations, work environments and tools that minimize exposure to
ergonomic risk factors. They require tools, methods and resources to design
equipment within the capabilities of the working population. As a result, they will be
able to assist ergonomics teams in improving the existing workplace (reactive), and
ensure that all future equipment and tools do not pose ergonomic risk (proactive).
• Workers' compensation managers and medical personnel must be prepared to deal
with and manage work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) when they do
occur. Training in current practices will enable them to manage injuries and reduce
the time and cost of returning injured employees to work.
5. Provide managers and supervisors with awareness training and coaching to affect work practices
and behaviors and to improve workplace conditions. In their supervisory roles, these individuals
are best prepared to assist with the implementation of improvements identified by ergonomics
team members and engineering and maintenance personnel. In addition, they are the most
influential people to affect employee safe work practices.
 6. Provide employees with awareness training to prepare and empower them to identify potential
ergonomic issues in their workplace and to adjust the workplace to control the issues or escalate
issues to their supervisors for assistance.

7. Organizations that establish clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and provide training to
ensure the capability to meet these responsibilities, create a strong internal support infrastructure.
The infrastructure ensures that employees receive support when they take responsibility for
improving their workplace and practices.
Training Content
Training class structure and content should focus on ensuring that people are successful in performing
their roles supporting the ergonomics process. This means that different roles require different topics and
learning objectives; the course outline lies in the defined responsibilities for each role. Training should
provide each person with the knowledge, tools, ability and confidence to meet all of the responsibilities.
For example, to meet the responsibilities described above for employees, awareness training
should include:

• Overview of the site ergonomic improvement goals, process and support infrastructure
• Employee responsibilities in the site ergonomics process
• Method (and expectation) to identify ergonomic issues in their workstations and tasks
• Specific, easy-to-apply work practices and tools/devices to reduce ergonomic risk at their
workstations and tasks
• Expectation to adjust or change a workplace or task to reduce risk
• How to escalate issues for which they cannot reduce risk
• Process (and expectation) to report symptoms of WMSDs.
For each person or role defined in your ergonomics process, determine their responsibilities. The
responsibilities become the basis for the learning objectives of each training class.

Interactive, hands-on exercises are the most effective method for adult learning. Hands-on applications
using familiar examples and case studies are critical for developing skills needed to perform ergonomic
assessments, implement engineering controls or behavioral changes and investigate WMSD incidents and
they keep participants mentally engaged in the training. Presenting theory and concepts is fascinating for
some people, but learning opportunities that allow participants to practice new skills will improve
retention, comfort and confidence. These three characteristics help ensure that workplace changes
(ergonomic improvements) occur following each training session.
Integrated responsibilities will determine the cascading learning objectives for each role. By planning
these objectives before class content, you will ensure that all roles in the support infrastructure are clearly
defined, avoid gaps and duplication of coverage and ensure the use of common language and tools.
Bear in mind that training is an activity that supports the implementation and ongoing sustainability of an
effective ergonomics process, the critical elements of which are:
1. Identifying risk
2. Reducing risk
3. Verifying risk reduction
 4. Managing injuries
5. Maintaining program sustainability.
6. Critical Success Factors
In summary, the critical success factors for effective, efficient and sustainable ergonomics training are as
follows:

• Base the need for, and content of, training on the performance expected from the participants.
Well-defined roles and responsibilities of the support infrastructure are your blueprint for
ergonomics training.
• Prepare the wall. The training sequence begins at the top of the support infrastructure and ends
with employee awareness training.
• Hold people accountable for performing the activities and achieving results using the skills and
methods provided in training.

ERGONOMICS PROLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES

1. ENGINEERING
a. Workplace Improvements
Improving the workplace through engineering controls is the preferred control
method for reducing risk. A systematic process for risk identification and reduction
should be in place to ensure that physical changes to the workplace are made that
eliminate hazards/reduce risk.
2. ADMINISTRATIVE
a. Job Rotation
Job rotation is the structured interchange of workers between different jobs,
requiring workers to rotate between different workstations or jobs at certain time
intervals. Job rotation increases the variety of tasks required as the worker takes on more
duties, enlarging the physical demands and adding variety to the job.

b. Warm-up stretching and stretch breaks

Making sure your team members are physically ready for work reduces injury
risk and promotes a health, safety and team culture. Stretching is a vital part of a healthy
fitness regimen. Pre-shift stretching and warm-up exercises reduce the risk of
musculoskeletal injuries by reducing fatigue, improving muscular balance and posture,
and improving muscle coordination.
c. Workplace Athlete Training
Training workplace athletes is an essential element of the MSD prevention
process. They must be trained on the benefits of the above administrative controls and
learn musculoskeletal self-care best practices. Classroom training should be followed up
with one-on-one application training by an experienced injury prevention specialist.
d. Proper Lifting / Handling Techniques
 Educating employees on proper lifting techniques should be a key employee
training objective in your education program. Workers are making decisions moment by
moment that affect their work and the toll it takes on their bodies. Educated decisions and
behaviors require education!
e. Team Lifting
When a load exceeds recommended weight limits, workplace athletes should be
required to perform a team lift.

3. WORKPLACE ATHLETE MUSCULOSKELETAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS

a. Musculoskeletal Self-Care, Rest and Recovery
As mentioned earlier, musculoskeletal health should be a regular topic in
classroom training sessions and then followed up regularly by an injury prevention
specialist with one-on-one consultations. This is an ongoing process to create a health and
safety culture and promote overall health and wellness of workplace athletes.
b. Early Intervention – Identify Early Signs of Fatigue
Early intervention is a proactive strategy to find early signs of an injury and
prevent it from happening.

Cumulative trauma disorders

- CTDs is a term covering injuries caused by forceful or awkward movements, repeated frequently
over time.
- CTDs occur to the muscles, nerves, and tendons of the hands, arms, shoulders, and neck.
- Overworking a tendon can cause small tears in it, which inflame and cause intense pain, known as
Tendinitis.
Risk Factors
For the Upper Body Extremities:
- Repetitive and/or prolonged activities.
- Forceful exertions, usually with hands.
- Awkward postures of the upper body.
- Cold temperatures.
- Fatigue (inadequate recovery time).
For Back Disorders:
- Continued bending or lifting from below the knees.
- Prolonged sitting, especially with poor posture.
- Lack of adjustable chairs, footrests, and body supports.
Preventive Actions
The best way to prevent CTDs is proper work design, which also helps make employees aware of the
hazards that can cause it.
 - Poor posture at the workstation.
- Inappropriate positioning of the hands & arms.
- Heavy hand on a keyboard or mouse.
Preventive strategies that can be applied:
- Teach employees how to stretch, to start slowly and increase their pace gradually.
- Exercise regularly.
- Select tools wisely.
- Good job design & proper tool selection together are the best strategy.

Participatory ergonomics

Participatory ergonomics is a way to involve an organization’s workers, supervisors a nd other

workplace parties in jointly identifying and removing the hazards or risk factors in their workplace,
including musculoskeletal disorder risk factors.

It has been defined as “the involvement of people in planning and controlling a significant amou nt of
their own work activities, with sufficient knowledge and power to influence both processes and
outcomes in order to achieve desirable goals." This is just one of various definitions. According
to Koningsveld and de Loozesources “the participatory approach to ergonomics relies on actively
involving workers in implementing ergonomic knowledge, procedures and changes with the intention
of improving working conditions, safety, productivity, quality, morale and/or comfort."

https://www.coursehero.com/file/114214695/Lecture-8-Ergonomic-and-Temperature-Hazardspdf/
https://www.coursehero.com/file/77205996/Problem-Solving-Strategiespdf/
https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/2018-12/fy15_sh-27643-sh5_ErgonomicsWorkbook.pdf