Ergonomics in Occupational Safety.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chaffin, Don B.
• Description:
  The roles of ergonomics and injury epidemiology in occupational safety are discussed, and illustrated utilizing a category of accidents referred to as "falls from elevated work surfaces". Ergonomics deals with the interactions between persons, tasks and environments, and relies on the knowledge of how various types of interactions can (1) limit performance, and (2) result in worker harm in chronic or acute ways. The human physical and mental responses that must be anticipated to design safe work environments are predictable by ergonomic principles, but not generally understood by safety professionals. The "5-Year Occupational Safety Research Document - A NIOSH Strategy" plan of action was criticized for allocating insufficient funds for ergonomic studies. As planned, funding for safety research would amount to about two cents per worker per year. Investigations into falls from elevated work surfaces lead the author to the conclusion that at least one half million dollars should be allocated to each of seven suggested ergonomic oriented investigations required to understand and prevent such falls. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Worker-health; Industrial-safety-programs; Industrial-education; Workplace-studies; Human-factors-engineering; Occupational-hazards; Work-performance; Occupational-accidents
• Series:
  NIOSH Numbered Publications
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  91-101
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00171002
• Citation:
  NIOSH 1982 Feb:91-101
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1982
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Proceedings of the Symposium on Occupational Safety Research and Education, January, 1981, DHHS(NIOSH) Publication No. 82-103
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/236972/cdc_236972_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 168.02 KB ]