Working Safely
( Editor’s note; Many of you know Steve Sayer as a friend or neighbor here in Aliso Viejo. He was asked by meatingplace.com to write on safety issues for their online blog. Meatingplace.com is an on-line community for red meat and poultry processors
in North America. Membership is FREE. Meatingplace.com is published by the Marketing & Technology Group.)
You can place some umbrage, posthumously, on a 19th century scientist and educator named Wojciech Jastrzebowski (1799-1882), who is credited in history books with dreaming up today’s rather modish name and ultimate denotation that is ergonomics.
Borrowing as he did from Greek vernacular; ergon meaning “work” and nomoi meaning “natural law,” when effortlessly coalesced as one, gives us our contemporary name and definition of ergonomics; “how to work according to nature,” or if your prefer; “fitting the job to the person, not the person to the job.”
Fast forward now to the 20th century with new terms, laws, institutions, and ideologies such as; the OSHA act of 1970, department of labor (DOL), international ergonomics association, cognitive ergonomics, macroeconomics , neuroergonomics, light ergonomics, engineering-psychology, cumulative trauma disorders (CTD’s), musculoskeletal disorders, carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive motion disorders, to name but a few – phew.
The combined sciences that are today’s 21st century ergonomics have been spawned by eclectic economics of inventions ranging from ergonomically designed chairs, lighting, work-stations, and computer keyboards through the continuum of paid-on-the-clock-stretching-before-working; body-curved-hand-held-tools, composed working environments, and the wide, wide expansive world of automation in manufacturing. Beginning with the remarkable invention of the spinning jenny of the industrial revolution to the automatic R-2 D-2’s of modern day assembly lines, ergonomics is here to stay.
Superlative postures when sitting or standing compounded with minimal exertion, stress and strains to the extremities with proper body mechanics through learned training are central factors that result with optimal corporal ergonomics.
Reaching for the sky too high or bending over too low are out; Having workstations with adjustable work heights and angle adjustments will remain being in. So will implementing job rotations as a premeditated caution; not as a response to symptoms when it’s too little, too late; planned layouts and engineering designs where productivity and personal safety can be maximized and achieved will reside in vogue; all culminating (hopefully) with workers fatigue and discomfort of decades past being minimized.
Ergonomic induced health-hazards are certainly not exclusive to the meat and poultry industry. However, reportable CTD’s during the 1980’s and 1990’s were so exceedingly omnipresent in our industry, that regulatory agencies such as OSHA and the DOL couldn’t help put tap in and get everyone involved.
In part, with our industry’s past and present association with CTD’s and the like, there exists a number of informative publications that you can surf to in cyberspace that connotes keen innovative ergonomic applications that are germane to your unique operations;
Ergonomics guidelines for poultry processing
Ergonomics program management guidelines for meatpacking plants
United States department of labor – introduction to ergonomics
International ergonomics association
Injuries and illnesses caused by ergonomic hazards have been reduced markedly in our specific industry since the 80’s and 90’s. Though improvements are always desired, our industry is to be congratulated by continuing to improvise on needed modifications in the semblance of job specific training, personal protective equipment, innovative mechanization, and ergonomically designed work-stations.
What has your company done to rein-in ergonomic hazards at your establishment?
January 05, 2011
