By: Lanny Boutin
Compensating for and preventing workplace injuries from repetitive strain injuries (RSI) and other musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) will cost North American employers tens of billions this year. It will not, however, stop the pain unless office workers and their employers take responsibility for making it stop.
US and Canadian employers are spending more than $20 billion annually on compensation claims related to RSI and MSDs. New ergonomic standards could cost U. S. businesses an additional $129.5 billion dollars in 2001. All this spending may not accomplish much, however, unless habits change in the workplace.
MSD's are "the most widespread occupational health hazard facing the United States today, with two million workers suffering work related MSD's each year," according to Charles Jeffres, the US Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health. The US Bureau of Labour Statistics found computer-related injuries accounted for 66 percent of occupational injuries in 1998 and $20 billion in workers compensations claims in the US alone. (Canada has no broad statistics, but last year's National Wellness Survey reported workplace absenteeism in Canada has skyrocketed to $12 billion per year. It also noted that only 17.5 percent of Canadian companies offered comprehensive workplace wellness programs, compared to 67 percent in the US.) Canada still has no source of statistics on this major source of workplace injury.
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Working at a computer for long hours is an intense and strenuous athletic event |
As a result of government attention to RSI, American employers are facing strong official pressure to make workplaces safer for employers. And although Canadian businesses don't face the same official pressure to go ergonomic yet, they too can be expected to spend massively to fight workplace injuries caused by RSI and other MSDs.
Ergonomics, the applied science of equipment design, has been touted as the saviour in our war against RSI. And while there is no question that better-designed workstations, comfortable chairs and proper fitting equipment will go a long way to reducing our epidemic of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, tendonitis, tennis elbow, bursitis and lower back injuries, it isn't the whole solution.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and its imitators
The "glamour syndrome" of RSIs may be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Fourteen percent of the population complain of CTS-type symptoms, like numbness or pain in the wrist or hand. Only 3 percent of those tested actually suffer from CTS, though.
This is because many other conditions such as hypothyroidism, diabetes, arthritis and obesity cause CTS-like symptoms. One German study noted that one third of its 224 CTS patients also suffered from conditions which could mimic CTS.
Another published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that during more than 1,000 office visits by nearly 300 participants, diagnostic tests were requested only 25 times. They speculated that by using patient histories alone, 68 percent of all underlying conditions would be missed.
"A misdiagnosis which could cause you to suffer the consequences of a delayed diagnosis", notes Dr. Liam Martin a Rheumatologist and associate professor in the faculty of Medicine, at the University of Calgary. "It could also subject you to unnecessary CT release surgery, with its associated complications".
Researchers recommend that patients with CTS symptoms have a thyroid-function test and a complete blood-cell count to rule out other diseases. Martin also recommends a nerve conduction test, which uses electrical impulses to test the median nerve, as it crosses the wrist.
Not Just the Wrist
Many experts in office ergonomics believe we need to widen our scope. Jack Bellis, co-author of It's not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: RSI Theory and Therapy for Computer Professionals, and a CTS sufferer, "believes we often wrongly blame our wrists or elbows when we should be looking at our whole upper extremity."
Paul Linden, a specialist in body and movement awareness education at the Columbus Centre for Movement Studies, notes in Comfort at your Computer: Body Awareness Training for Pain-Free Computer Use that "working at a computer for long hours is an intense and strenuous athletic event and like an athlete you need good physical form and good equipment."
The $800 Chair
For her master's thesis Marisol Barrero analysed the arm angles and upper body poster of 24 typists using four different chairs, priced from $900 to $1,200. She found that these high-end ergonomic chairs still forced typists to extend their wrists well beyond a neutral position, to about twice the recommended extension angle for avoiding injury.
Linden agrees that good equipment is not enough. "A good chair won't help if you're abusing your body though muscular tension or awkward posture." He stresses we must become more aware of our bodies, learn to sit properly and, like athletes, prepare.
The Five Minute Workout
We should take 5-minute exercise breaks every 30 minutes, notes Randall Helm a physiotherapist, in Waterloo, Ontario. The author of Computer Fit: Staying Health in a Computer-Based Workforce, Helm used his degrees in physical therapy and physical and health education to create a regiment of exercises for computer workers.
He stresses the importance of stretching before sitting down at the keyboard. "Done properly stretches are a great way to release tension and improve circulation."
Like most experts Helm advocates the whole body approach. Noting that with "improved workstations and workloads, exercise breaks, better nutrition and activity levels, as well as reduced stress levels, we may be able to prevent the personal healthy crisis computer workers are currently facing."
Lanny Boutin is a freelance writer in Gibbons, Alberta. Her kids see that she never sits for 30 minutes at a time.
Looking for more?
Check out Helm's exercises at www.computerfit.com/ch2part2.html.
Hundreds of other CTS and MSD's links can be found at: The CTS Place - www.ctsplace.com and Paul Marxhausen's site at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln - www.engr.unl.edu/eeshop/rsi.html.
For information on office ergonomics try: The Alberta Workers Compensation Board - www.wcb.ab.ca/assets/images/ergobk.pdf, Ergo web www.ergoweb.com, or the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety www.ccohs.ca.
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