Ergonomics. Good working conditions increase life quality

Your ergonomic posture can increase your well-being and your health. Learn how ergonomics can significantly improve your life.

Ergonomics is the science that studies how humans interact with their work environment, and tools they use to perform their tasks with a focus to the disposition of space and equipment in the workplace, always minding the well-being of the worker. While it studies the environment and the human beings, ergonomics is based on many other sciences, such as engineering, biomechanics, physiology or psychology.

The first publication to address diseases and work-related injuries was created by Bernardino Ramazzini, an Italian physician in 1700. The work “De morbis artificum diatriba” about the diseases of workers, paved the way for other scholars to publish their work.

The term ergonomics has its roots in the Greek words ergon (work) and nomos (law or standard), and was first used in an article of the Polish scientist Wojciech Jastrzebowski, published in 1857. But it was only a century later, in 1959, with the English engineer K.F.H. Murrel, that this discipline was recognized scientifically, through the creation of the first National Association of Ergonomics, which brought together psychologists, physiologists and engineers interested by the question of adapting the working environment to the man.

Ergonomists evaluate tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make them compatible with the worker’s needs, abilities and limitations. They try to adapt the instruments and workplaces to who execute it, in order to develop a good integration between existing conditions and the physical and psychological capabilities and limitations of the individual, so that the system becomes more efficient.

Through ergonomics, it is possible to increase the efficiency of the company, through the safety, health and comfort of the worker in the workplace, so that the existence of errors and dangers are reduced in order to avoid accidents and injuries, what often happens when tasks are repetitive, and performed with wrong postures or too much efforts.

Studying the postures and movements of workers, the equipment they use to perform their tasks and the surroundings, an ergonomic study develops positions, and work methods, tools, machinery and furnishings appropriate to each person tasks. Its action is also to raise awareness and training on methods and techniques that are best suited for the implementation of each function.

Just to give an example, the computer screen should be placed at eye level, so the neck and column does not do too much effort. The function of an adjustable chair is to adapt to the height of the employee, so his feet stay completely based on the floor and the back can take different positions. The chair arms must have a posture that allows elbows, when based on the desk, form an angle of about 90 degrees. Use a headset is also advised to whom speak often on the phone, it helps to avoid wrong positions very common on anyone who spends a lot of time on phones at the same time it facilitates writing on the keyboard.