Professional Safety applied ergonomics

In Chapter 19, Applied Ergonomics Significance and Opportunity, I refer to an article by Alphonse Chapanis titled To Communicate the Human Factors Message, You Have to Know What the Message Is and How to Communicate It. One of his themes is that human factors engineering has to be defined and its practitioners must know what it is to be able to communicate about it successfully. Safety professionals have the same need. 

Because of their involvement with applied ergonomics and quality management, both of which are design-based, some safety professionals now take a different view of causal factors. As an example, they say that it became apparent to them that for many ergonomics-related injuries and... 

Applied ergonomics has become a major element in the practice of safety. Because of the prominence of musculoskeletal injuries within the universe of occupational injuries and illnesses, safety practitioners must achieve broad knowledge in applied ergonomics. As ergonomics emerged to attain the prominence it now has, opportunities arose for achievement, recognition, and professional satisfaction far beyond what has been typical for safety professionals. 

For the preparation of the proposal recommending that the institute be created, a collection was made of actual cases describing initiatives taken by safety professionals to resolve injury problems by redesigning operations that also resulted in improvements in productivity and cost efficiency. An overwhelming number of examples were submitted of preoperational, operational, and postincident situations. Several of those cases are cited in Chapter 20, Applied Ergonomics Significance and Opportunity. ... 

In human bodies, all movement is possible due to the application of load and stress to biological levers. The field of biomechanics, which teaches about joints, bones, and muscles, provides safety professionals with an understanding of how the musculoskeletal levers of the body are designed to work. This awareness can be applied to identify and eliminate unnatural movements resulting in ergonomic problems. Evaluation activities such as monitoring frequency and duration of... 

As is the case with ZlO s safety design review provisions, safety professionals who are not involved in the design or purchasing processes should consider ergonomics as fertile ground in which to get started. Some of the comments made in Chapter 13, Safety Design Reviews, are repeated here because they apply equally to ZlO s design and procurement provisions. 

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