According to J Paul Lee of the University of California, Davis, work-related injuries cost our economy about $192 billion annually*. There are 23,000 on-the-job injuries in the United States every single day. That’s over 8.5 million injuries annually. This is a huge burden on the economy, employers, individuals and families. And according to a 2000 Senate testimony ◊ of Charles N. Jeffress, Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Labor, $1 of every $3 spent on workers’ compensation arises from insufficient ergonomic protection.
The above data shows the deep correlation between ergonomics and workers’ compensation and the ability of ergonomic protection to reduce the cost of work-related injuries borne by our economy.
Ergonomic protection comes in variety of workstations and devices including:
- Adjustable desk converters
- Sit stand desks
- Adjustable monitor arms
- Ergonomic chairs
- Ergonomic keyboards
- Ergonomic mice
- IPad/Tablet tables and mounts
And more.
It is important to pay attention to your repetitive movements, and stationery positions. So if you find yourself in the same position for more than an hour at a time, be sure to adjust your environment. Whether sitting for an hour, viewing, or interacting (mouse, keyboard), it is critical to ensure that you continually move and change position. Movement equals life.
Start by considering your day and determine the most repetitive activities combined with the most stationary activities. What do you do the most? For instance if you like video or online games, you may have thousands of clicks and keyboard movements per hour. If you are an office worker, you might sit in the same position almost the entire day. Either way, once you determine your daily behavior, be sure to address the most repetitive and stationery situations first.
If you tend to sit all day, look into ergonomic chairs immediately. Additionally, you should review height adjustable workstations and sit stand desks. These will keep you moving up and down, which is 100% better than sitting in the chair all day.
If you find yourself staring at the same screen hour after hour, be sure that you are changing the lighting around you. Focused task lighting is important as it relieves eye strain resulting out of staring at a computer screen for prolonged period of time. A task light will also allow you to adjust the light to the situation therefore reducing eyestrain.
There are many ways to keep yourself safe while working, gaming or otherwise sitting in repetitive and stationery positions. According to the Wall Street Journal, by sitting three hours a day, you reduce two years off of your life.* In addition, you can reduce back strain, neck issues, wrist and hand issues or other problems that occur from repetitive and stationery activities.
Let’s all live longer and stay healthy.
