Ergonomic workstations

Creating a Healthy Workstation

by Rhonda Crenshaw, Director of Humanscale’s National Ergonomic Group
(extracts from article for Interiors & Sources, November 2004)

The technology boom of the 1990s had a dramatic impact on communications as we knew them. And from the looks of it, technology will continue to change the way we see and respond to the world. Although technological advancements over the past decade have touched nearly every corner of our lives, from medicine to entertainment to the way we buy our groceries, they have, in particular, had a profound impact on the daily life of the average office worker.

The past decade has been marked by a dramatic shift in the way we work. Only 10 years ago, when you needed to send or receive a fax, you would get up from your desk and walk to the fax machine. Today, the traditional fax is nearly antiquated. With online scanning and faxing capabilities, a couple of keystrokes is all it takes. Similarly, if you had to ask your co-worker a question a few years ago, most likely you’d get up and walk to their desk or office. Today, however, there are several less taxing ways to communicate – by telephone, of course, but also by email and online messaging. Additionally, with the abundance of relatively low-cost printers today, it’s likely you don’t even need to go very far to retrieve a document or letter you’ve printed.

Of course, the result of these changes is that office workers are spending more and more time at their desks, and more and more time on their computers. While 90% of all U.S. office workers now use computers, 40% work on their computers at least 4 hours a day. According to Dr. Alan Hedge, Professor of the Human Factors Laboratory at Cornell University, the risk of musculoskeletal discomfort increases with as little as 1 hour of computer use per day, and the risk of musculoskeletal injury in someone who works on a computer 4 or more hours per day is 9 times greater than it is for a one hour per day user. These statistics explain the growing number of work-related office injuries, and why there is an increasing emphasis on ergonomics in the workplace. >> Ergonomic misconceptions