The Safety Syndrome
Every day we are reminded of
safety in the workplace and the home: Buckle your seat belt, wear a back
support, etc.
The tennis shoe industry is
spending millions to promote a better shoe or jogging, basketball and walking.
Asbestos in schools and
other buildings strike fear into everyone’s heart, yet we push ourselves around
in our chairs on carpet every day, putting stress on our knees, hips and
ankles.
Everywhere we look there is
some promotion awakening safety on the workplace. The ergonomic chair industry
has become a $1 billion plus industry because of the number of back problems
taking place in the office workplace. (Today’s ergonomic chairs sell in a price
range of $300-$1,000).
Yet in spite of this one
sided progress, IBM, Digital Equipment, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, and a
division of Eastman Kodak have been sued over office workplace injuries.
The Bare Facts
Regardless of all the
studies and innovations that have come on the market since the introduction of
ergonomic chairs 15 years ago, the bare facts still exist that in offices
throughout the 50 states the number of injury and Workers’ Comp claims is rising
every year.
Throughout the 1980’s and
the early 1990’s, the reported incidence of Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
had undergone an unprecedented increase according to the Cal-OSHA Standard
Board. The bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported
that the number of disorders associated with repeated trauma in the office
environment has risen from 22,600 cases in 1982 to 185,400 case in 1990.
This represents over an
eightfold increase, driving the portion of all occupational diseases
represented by CTDs from 21 percent in 1982 to 56 percent in 1990. Since 1989,
CTSs have been more prevalent than all other occupational diseases combined.
In all 50 states industrial
accidents and Workers’ Comp claims are on the decrease. However, in high tech,
financial institutions, insurance companies, real estate related companies and
the general office field, claims have risen 3.7 percent. For state and local
government workers, the claim rate has risen 2.8 percent.
The computer as culprit
With a growing number of
computer users in offices every year, there has been a great surge in computer
related ailments.
Stewart B. Leavitt, Ph.D.,
in the November Office Products Industry Report, pointed out that “millions of
office workers, each year often suffer debilitating aches, pains and other
physical problems known as cumulative trauma disorders.”
The California Occupational
Safety and Health Standards has defined CTD as “any physical disorder that
develops from or is aggravating by the cumulative application of biomechanical
stress to tissues and joints, including but not limited to, bursitis,
ligament and muscle strains (e.g.
neck-tension syndrome), nerve entrapment (e.g. carpal tunnel syndrome) and
similar disorders.
The Cal-OSHA board also identified
several CTD risk factors, including force, “i.e., physical exertion by or
pressure applied to any part of the body.
The Cal-OSHA board also
identified several CTD risk factors including force “i.e. physical exertion by
or pressure applied to any part of the body.”
RSI More Common
Less severe but more common
than CTD is RSI (repetitive strain injuries) – “a general class of disorders
which results from a gradual sprain or strain to the upper limbs (shoulders,
arms, hands).
“According to Dr. Marvin Dainoff,
director of the Center for Ergonomic Research at
Lawsuits?
Stewart Leavitt has also
noted “a spreading epidemic of claimed disabilities is feared by employers,
insurance carriers, and legislators.”
The following information
concerning Workers’ Compensation claims may vary from state to state. In
In spite of this number, the
incidence of claims by workers in the office field has risen 6.5 percent per
year. Back and spine injuries, including strains, sprains, dislocation and
hernias, accounted for 51.5 percent of the claims.
Inflammation or irritation
of bones, joints, tendons or muscles accounted for 0.8 percent.
A Light at the End of the Carpal Tunnel
Although carpal tunnel
syndrome has received a great deal of attention in both the medial community
and the media, the number of claims for this disorder accounted for only .04
percent of the total.
The number of disabling,
non-fatal injuries and illnesses in
Steve Lohr of the New York
Times News Service reported in 1992 that every working day, more than 40
million Americans “hunch in front of desktop computers, and more and more of
them are falling victim to painful, sometimes crippling, stress-linked injuries
to their shoulders, arms, hands and backs.”
Over a period of some 15
years, we noted a growing trend to install long nap or deep pile carpeting in
the office, and the concomitant elimination of floor mats to provide a hard
surface on which to roll a chair.
We developed a theory to
explain the growing number of medial problems relating to the back, knees and
legs of people employed in various workplace situations.
Soft Shoulder Ahead
It seemed to us that trying
to roll an ergonomic chair around on a carpet was like trying to drive a car in
sand. There’s a good reason that state road departments post “soft shoulder”
signs wherever needed. Just as driving a car around in sand would soon have a
deleterious effect on various parts of the automobile, requiring a great deal
more power and torque to move, pushing a chair around on carpet would be bound
to create stress on certain body parts, especially for people over 40 years of
age.
By the same token, since you
would not attempt to play tennis or roll a bowling ball on deep carpet, why
would you subject your body to such treatment?
It seemed logical to us that
office workers who are required to move around while seated in a chair should
have a hard surface, such as a hardwood floor mat, on which to roll.
Mosquitoes don’t cause Malaria!
When we propounded our
theory to various architects, designers and members of the office equipment
manufacturing fraternity, they all laughed, we knew then how Dr. Walter Reed
felt when he tried to convince his colleagues that the mosquito was the basic
cause of malaria.
One argument we often heard
from these “experts” was that the invention of new kinds of chair caster eliminated
the need for a hard surface.
But we were sure that we
were right, that pushing a chair around on carpeting, regardless of the type of
casters, creates stress on the legs, knees and back.
For that reason, we felt it
was necessary to have an engineering study initiated on the subject of stress
caused by moving around in a chair on various kinds of carpeted surfaces.
We were really in the Dark
When we at Angus-Stuart
first began to have the test made for a load factor that went to or onto the
lower extremities every time one moved in a chair on carpet, we had no idea
where the test was going to take us.
The results were astounding:
they indicated that every time you pushed you chair on deep pile carpet, you
were, in theory, adding 80 to 90 pound to your pelvic, back knees and foot
areas.
This damage is slight, and
slow to generate health problem. But over a period of four or five years , the
stress load factor will begin to show its damage with soreness, slipping discs,
and – for a person over 40 years of age – the speed up toward traumatic
arthritis.
Wheelchair Race
In 1978,
The results were that all
three groups traveled more slowly on the carpet, and showed a significantly
greater degree of oxygen uptake per unit of distance traveled.
A bottom line summation of
the entire report was that it took 36 to 56 percent more energy to push the
wheelchair on outdoor carpet of that era. It would be interesting to see what
their results would have been if the test were run on the present-day deep pile
carpet over carpet cushion.
Dr. Marvin Dainoff led a
study team at
A summation of Dr. Dainoff’s
results was that it took 49 percent more energy to move on carpet than on a
wood surface (in this case an Angus-Stuart Floor Mat).
What if
It wouldn’t matter if we
bought every executive and office workers in
The Bottom Line
Regardless of the type of
chair or casters used, if you are going to roll around on any type of carpet in
an ergonomic chair, there should be a free wheeling hared surface to roll on.
There are still unanswered
problems:
What happens when you raise
your buttocks slightly to move your chair over carpet? According to people
trained in this field at Norco Naval Laboratories, you are in a physical
position in which the human body was never made to function.
What happens to exacerbate
carpal tunnel syndrome and you aggravated should problems when you use your
hands to push yourself from your work station or desk when you are rolling
around on carpet?
The complete test from DR.
Marvin Dainoff,