Occupational health in the workplace has long been something of a Cinderella service. Health Editor Madeleine Brindley speaks to Dr Sally Williams at Corus’ plant in Port Talbot about how the discipline is now being taken seriously.

THERE is a common perception that the state-run heavy industries looked after their employees’ general health and wellbeing.

This ideal dates back to the heady days of the industrial revolution when a handful of industrialists combined philanthropic ideas with business, in a bid to improve the social and living conditions of their vast armies of workers.

These include the likes of George and Richard Cadbury, who built their chocolate empire in Bournville, in Birmingham, on sound Quaker and social ideals, and Sir Titus Salt, who built more than 800 homes for his mill workers in Saltaire, also in Birmingham.

And then there was the eccentric figure of Dr William Price, one of the forgotten pioneers of health in the workplace – he is remembered first and foremost as the godfather of cremation – who initiated the first workers’ medical scheme in Wales for employees of the Brown Lennox chain works, in Pontypridd.

The decades of nationalism would embody a sense of the state looking after its workers – carrying on this philanthropic tradition – not least at a time when all the heavy industries were plagued by industrial diseases, accidents and injury.

Privatisation and the mass sell-off of the nation’s “jewels” ushered in a new perception that multi-national companies were more interested in making as much profit as they were able.

But that is beginning to change as businesses have started to take a pro-active stance to their workforce’s wellbeing, realising that health, productivity and therefore profitability are inextricably linked.

Nowhere is this new approach more apparent than in Port Talbot, where Corus, which dominates the skyline, has embraced the principles of occupational health both within its 28 sq km plant and in the wider community.

Dr Sally Williams, pictured, the regional medical officer for Corus, leading the occupational health department at the plant in Port Talbot, said:

“Once it was all about injuries and industrial disease – pneumoconiosis is now rare and we’re seeing the tail end of asbestos- related disease – but now we see the impact of lifestyle on people in work. There is also a lot of talk about a stress epidemic related to work, but it may be more about how we live our lives now. The way we look at occupational health is very different from 60 years ago.”

A graduate of Cardiff’s medical school, Dr Williams started working in occupational health 20 years ago, after first working as a hospital doctor and later training as a GP.

She said:

“I love medicine but I wanted to fit it around my young children – occupational health gave me a mixture of working with patients, community public health and the business aspect. You work for an employer and you have to think about medicine in a slightly different way – my role is really about determining whether someone is fit for their job and whether their job is fit for them.”

Before being head-hunted to join Corus two years ago, Dr Williams worked for a Canadian mining company, in Clydach and in Toronto, before being promoted to the company’s chief medical officer.
“It was fantastic experience seeing how different healthcare systems worked and I did a lot on corporate social responsibility, which is a growing concept,” she said.

“Then I came back to Wales, which was great for me. I came to Corus when it was going through a big change and it has been a great experience. I came to Corus because I was given the opportunity to help the company look at occupational health in a different way – the company had had occupational health since the British Steel days, but it was more reactionary, rather than being based on an employer partnership with community relations.

“And the new MD at the time Phil Dryden [now Corus divisional director, long products] wanted to change the management programme to incorporate everything to do with health.”

Occupational health in Corus has been “revitalised” – Dr Williams arrived as the company was still working in the shadow of the explosion at blast furnace number five, which killed three workers and injured more in November 2001. The company pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to ensure the safety of their employees and others brought by HSE under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in December 2006 at Swansea Crown Court. It was fined £1.3m and ordered to pay costs of £1.7m.

Speaking after the case Terry Rose, HSE director for Wales, said:

“This must be a wake-up call for the industry. The process is centuries old but the risks need to be managed to the highest modern standards.”

Although the occupational health department will still provide an emergency treatment service, the bulk of its work is made up of return-to-work programmes, COSHH – control of substances hazardous to health – and other health and safety work and educating the 5,800-strong workforce and contractor workers about wellbeing and their lifestyles.

“We all want a healthy, productive workforce, which is fit for work,” said Dr Williams.

“We try to run rehabilitation programmes, so if someone is on an NHS waiting list for an operation, it doesn’t mean that they can’t do anything – we want to use people who have skills in alternative ways, because the longer people are away from the workplace, the harder it is to get them back.

“We run physiotherapy here, we have counselling services, we have some specialist drug and alcohol programmes. We work with the carers’ associations, with managers, with HR and the unions because it is all about keeping people in meaningful work.

“We employ people who would normally come to work but not those with significant disabilities because of the nature of the work. We see all the legacies of diseases in the community in our workforce – heart disease, cancer – Corus is not immune to these, although the problem is lessened because the workforce is healthier.”

Dr Williams is particularly proud of Corus’ “pioneering” drugs and alcohol work – the company’s relaunch was inspired by Welsh Assembly Government figures which said that one in five people in the community around the steelworks has been affected by alcohol or drugs, either directly or they know someone who has been affected.

“We’re seeing this mirrored in the workforce, although that doesn’t mean that everyone is an alcoholic or has a drug problem, maybe they know someone – a friend or someone from school. We have been working, with the West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse on getting the right information to those who need it at the right time and because we are working in partnership, there is no waiting time.”

The company now employs three locally-based drugs and alcohol misuse counsellors who divide their time between Corus and the community.

Dr Williams added: “If we can rehabilitate people and get them back into work as near as possible to the job they were doing, then that’s a win-win situation.”

Newswise — Summer, in all its blazing, sunny glory, is back! There’s plenty of time to get out on the fairway with your golf clubs or onto a court with your racquet. However, this also means there’s time for a sports injury to put an end to your summer fun. Golfer’s elbow, climber’s finger and runner’s knee are just a few of the problems that can plague the boys (and girls) of summer.

Dr. William Levine, chief of sports medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, recommends the following rules of the game to avoid athletic injuries:

• Your best bet is to prevent injuries before they happen. First of all, start slow. Don’t expect to be in the same playing condition that you ended up in last fall, even if you have been maintaining your fitness level. New activities require muscles and joints to respond in a different way. This may result in minor soreness while your body adjusts. If you push yourself too hard too soon, that minor soreness could turn into something more serious.
• Don’t forget to warm up. Although you may feel warm in good weather, you still have to give your muscles a chance to go through the motions and get blood pumping to all the necessary areas. Gentle stretching before finishing your activity will help those hard-working muscles retain and improve flexibility.
• For tennis elbow, runner’s knee, and similar injuries, try R.I.C.E. — Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Rest means that the injured area is not put through any undue strain. When icing a body part, apply the ice in a covering so that it is not in direct contact with the skin. A cotton handkerchief covering the ice is helpful. Ice the affected area several times a day, for about 20 minutes at a time. Compression is applying pressure to the injured area to stop bleeding (if any is occurring) or to reduce swelling. Elevation helps in these respects as well. Compression and elevation are to be used in the case of acute injuries, such as a twisted ankle.
• Take frequent breaks. Even tennis pros rest between sets. Taking a rest doesn’t mean that you have to completely stop all activity, although it may be advisable sometimes. Just rest the body parts that are working hard and are susceptible to injury.
• The single most important thing you can do is pay attention to your body. Don’t ignore the little aches and pains in the joints and muscles. They are early signals that could help you prevent more serious injuries.

Read the full article at http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/540555/

Many computer and ergonomic websites now provide valuable information on guidelines for sitting and working posture. Many human resources personnel are being trained in ergonomic basics. However, there are times when everything at the workstation looks right but the worker continues to suffer from repetitive strain pain. Here are a few tips to fine-tune your ergonomic intervention.

1. Ergonomics is about the worker interacting in his work environment. During their ergonomic evaluations, employees often tell me that they showed up at work one day and had a new piece of ergonomic equipment sitting on their desk. No observation or training was offered. Equipment was purchased because the employer was told that this particular piece of equipment would stop injuries and save the company money. Although in some cases this approach may work, it can often backfire. Employees who are not trained, who do not have the opportunity to provide feedback and offer suggestions, and who are treated in a one-size fits all manner will often reject the equipment or receive equipment that they do not need. These make for expensive paperweights and do nothing to solve potential problems. Make time to get to know the employees, talk to them about what they feel the issues are, observe their working habits, and treat each one as an individual. Since they are the ones performing the job, they will have some valuable feedback to provide and will help guide your intervention.
2. Listen to the worker. Begin with the proper ergonomic set-up. However, ergonomic guidelines are just that – guidelines. What works for one person may not work for another. Keep an open mind and listen to what the employee is telling you. He or she knows what a certain set-up feels like while you can only observe.
3. Give ergonomic adjustments some time. Any piece of new equipment or new arrangement will take two to six weeks to adjust to properly. Productivity may temporarily decrease during this adjustment period. Don’t make alterations to a work station during a busy output time or the employee will become frustrated with the inability to perform at normal speed. As familiarity and comfort with the new set-up improves, productivity should reach prior levels. And as pain resolves, productivity will most likely increase. If after one to two weeks the employee reports an increase in pain, the new ergonomic changes may not be appropriate for that employee.
4. Observe the worker performing job tasks. In spite of a good workstation set-up, people can still manage to perform activities awkwardly. For example, I observed a woman who would perform a two-key function by tucking her left thumb under the palm to hit the far left control key while simultaneously spreading her index finger to the far right function key. She continued to have left thumb pain and carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. This was frustrating for the employer who had provided an ergonomic keyboard and right-handed mouse (the employee was right-handed and her right symptoms did improve with the ergonomic equipment). While extreme habitual movements may not be common, they certainly contribute to repetitive strain injuries and would not be discovered except with observation.
5. Look at typing style. Typing style and habits can contribute to repetitive strain pain. Stiff fingers, tense fingers, swiveling at the wrist to activate the mouse or to stretch for keys, planting down on the wrist rest, and many other idiosyncratic typing styles can all cause injury.
6. Look at things from a different perspective. Many times I would have missed potential causes of injury if I had not walked around employees and looked at them from various positions. Wrist deviation may become more obvious if observed from a diagonal perspective. When looking at an employee from behind, you may see that one shoulder is higher than the other, or that the employee is bumping into equipment placed at the side of the desk. Look under the desk for clutter that may be limiting the employee from getting in close to the desk.

Marji Hajic is an Occupational Therapist and a Certified Hand Therapist practicing in Santa Barbara, California. For more information on hand and upper extremity injuries, prevention and recovery, visit Hand Health Resources.

via Bella Online, published with permission from author.

]]> http://www.grangephysio.com/news/fine-tuning-your-ergonomic-intervention.html/feed 0 http://www.grangephysio.com/news/straight-spine-syndrome.html http://www.grangephysio.com/news/straight-spine-syndrome.html#comments Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:10:19 +0000 Peter Culliford http://www.grangephysio.com/news/straight-spine-syndrome.html via Ergonomics in the News

Prof. Maj. Choudhary explains the dangers of Straight Spine Syndrome and how it develops.

How we injure our spine with computer work…

Long hours spent in front of the computer coupled with a faulty posture is emerging as a major health concern among software professionals leading to a spurt in the incidence of a relatively little known problem called ‘Straight Spine Syndrome’.

Specialists working in this field point out that the prolonged stretching of neck in the front and remaining glued to the monitor has seen an increase in the computer users complaining of painful condition of neck and back areas in recent times.

This condition which is found to express itself quite early in the occupation, as early as one year into the profession, has been attributed to Forward Head Posture (FHP) adopted by many.

“Some end up stretching their neck while working on computer and this disturbs the balance leading to painful conditions of neck and back,” says Bakhtiar Choudhary of Hyderabad Spine Clinic.

In normal cervical posture, the head is held directly within the centre of the gravity and when pushed forward and held in that position for long hours, disturbs the balance. If the head is considered 10 pounds and is held three inches ahead of the centre of gravity, it essentially ‘weighs’ about 30 pounds and the neck region is forced to take that much stress, explains Prof. Maj.Choudhary.

“Slowly, the dynamics of cervical spine turn defective and leads to painful conditions,” he says. Among others, the eye monitor ergonomics such as monitor level, its size and angle, font size and colour background also have been termed as causative factors for the problem.”

originally posted at The Hindu

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