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Ergonomics Guidelines

Sources: MOE, Mr Er Beng Siong, a private consultant in Manipulative Physiotherapy, and Ms Wendy Loke of 3M.

By Alvin Chiang and Eunice Lau

XIN Kenan is sitting pretty in his class - with good reason. The school has provided him with a higher table and chair. At 1.71m, the Primary 4 pupil from Bedok South Primary stands a head above the next tallest boy in his class and finds it difficult to fit his lanky frame into the classroom's regular tables and chairs.

Bedok South Primary usually allocates high tables and chairs to the tall pupils in its upper primary classes. But its teachers have full discretionary powers when it comes to catering to the needs of individual pupils.

Said the school's vice-principal, Ms Lee Tai Ngor : "It is the school's policy to ensure our pupils' comfort level. Of course it is rather difficult to monitor the level of implementation right down to the last pupil. But what matters most is that we keep such ergonomic considerations in the fore- front of our minds."

Bedok South Primary is among an increasing number of schools that pay more attention to ergonomics - or design principles that optimise the comfort and performance levels of people.

Last June, it hired an ergonomics consultant from 3M Singapore to do an ergonomics audit of one of its three computer laboratories. The laboratory's 45 terminals were all equipped subsequently with $6,000 worth of monitor glare-filters and wrist rests.

New schools that are built nowadays have to follow design guidelines governing lighting and placement of tables and chairs that aim to reduce eye strain.

A check with 15 local primary and secondary schools showed that many do take modest steps to provide for pupils' comfort, although none has actually engaged an ergonomics consultant, as Bedok South has.

Common measures include the use of window blinds and curtains to reduce glare from sunlight and installing more fans to cool down classrooms.

The issue of classroom design has prompted complaints from parents.

In a letter to The Straits Times' Forum page, reader Chew Buck Yang wrote that he visited his daughter's classroom and found that light reflected off the white-board. His daughter's seat on the extreme left of the class made it difficult for her to read what was on the whiteboard, he said.

He wrote: "Exposing schoolchildren to such bad conditions at least four hours a day will make them all myopic in no time".

Physiotherapist Er Beng Siong said more studies should be carried out on classroom ergonomics. "I deal with office ergonomics and I don't know of anybody here who specializes in the study of students and the classroom environment."

He said schools have to "strike a balance between what is practical and what is ideal in classrooms".

For example, fully-adjustable chairs will allow pupils of varying heights to sit down comfortably.

"However, such chairs for children are not readily available on the market. Most of them are made for adults and they are relatively expensive.

"A solution will be to provide non-adjustable chairs of various heights in classrooms. Lower chairs are placed along the front rows, while the back rows should have higher chairs."

More schools are paying attention to ergonomics

- or design principles that optimize comfort

By Alvin Chiang

The height of your chair, the tilt of your wrist as you type, your distance from the computer screen, how you place your feet under the desk - all these have come under scrutiny with the growing importance of ergonomics in the workplace. At the same time, there is a strong need for students preparing to enter the knowledge economy to go ergo as well.

The increasing urgency for ergonomics has come hand in hand with the IT age, as nearly 90 percent of workers today use a computer, with 70 percent of these using the computer for more than 4 hours a day. This new work environment has come with a new set of physical demands that over time can lead to painful conditions or even serious injuries. Ergonomic disorders such as Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), back strain and eye aches today account for nearly 60 percent of illnesses reported. And such work ailments have become the fastest growing category of illnesses that plague the work place, growing at an alarming rate of 25 percent every year. In the year 2000 alone, the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health in the U.S. recorded that a full one-fifth of office workers suffer from symptoms of RSI.

Schools Go ERGO

Extracted from Education - February/March 2001 (Page 44)

By Mark Lim & Serene Lam

But despite the severity of these conditions, such ailments can be prevented - simply by applying the basics of good ergonomics, such as adjusting your sitting posture and tilling your computer screen to be at eye level. After all, ergonomics run on a very simple principle - to fit the work to the worker, and not the other way around.

The term ergonomics is actually derived from the Greek words
ergon nomos that translate to laws of work'. These laws' have been largely ignored and defied until recent years with corporations worldwide realising the damage that ergonomic disorders can bring. In the US, RSI cost businesses an estimated $20 billion annually in lost wage benefits and medical costs.

Ergonomics aims to increase the comfort level and improve both health and productivity. And the benefits of ergonomics have been proven time and again. Studies have shown that performance levels in the office improve by 24 percent after ergonomic improvements. In another study done locally the number of reported symptoms of work-related discomfort such as aches in the back, neck, eyes and wrists reduced by 90 percent after applying ergonomic standards.

Such facts have not gone unnoticed in Singapore. Steps have already been taken to go ergo, the most significant of which was the move to expand the Factories Act to protect workers in new economy jobs. The Factories Act has been the cornerstone of industrial safety and health standards in Singapore for the past 40 years. Yet with better-educated workers and new job positions in the knowledge based economy, new occupational hazards such as RSI have to be accounted for.

Photo Courtesy of Serene Lam

As Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Manpower stated during the 26th International Congress on Occupational Health (ICOH) held in Singapore in August 2000, "Ergonomics has become more important in the design of work stations and equipment consoles. Such demands from workers (to be protected from RSI) are not unreasonable or negative and employers should respond positively."

The Ministry of Manpower is currently gathering views from unions and trade bodies on ways to combat such occupational health problems, as well as learning from other countries that are also passing legislation for ergonomically-sound workplaces.

But while offices have warmed up to the need for ergonomics, the drive to go ergo in education is not as intense - despite the Ministry of Education's growing focus on IT. With the Ministry of Education's IT master plan, students today spend up to 8 hours of curriculum time a week on computers. Besides this, there is no telling how much time students spend at home at their computer terminals, for work or for leisure. The need for students to not only be provided with good ergonomics, but to also be educated on how to prevent ergonomic disorders for their future in the knowledge economy, is starkly clear.

Photo Courtesy of Serene Lam

Said Mr Er Beng Siong, a manipulative physiotherapist from Physiotherapy Associates, "School children are at the development stage physically. It is thus important to take good care of body mechanics. Students today spend long hours at their desks just like working professionals. They are equally prone to develop strain injuries from adopting poor posture or using poorly designed furniture and aids."

So far some schools have responded positively to the need to go ergo. Among them. Bedok South Primary School, which was the first educational institution in Singapore to go ergonomic in June 2000. All 45 terminals in one of its three computer labs have been fitted with glare filters and wrist rests from ergonomics proponent 3M. A total of S$6,000 was spent on the equipment, an amount that Bedok South Primary's Vice-Principal Ms Lee Tai Ngor said was money well spent.

"The children find it useful. It's mainly for their comfort because of the number of hours they spend in front of the computer. We hope to cultivate good ergonomic habits in them for their future." she said.

Despite its current efforts, there's still more that the school wants to do to protect its students from ergonomic disorders. Plans are in the pipeline to pump in another S$6,000 to S$7,000 to install their computer lab with foot-rests and pull-out drawers for their computer keyboards. And according to Mr. Thomas Albin, 3M's manager for ergonomic services, these investments have benefits both for the students' health, as well as their studies.

Said Mr. Albin during an interview with The Straits Times during the 26th ICOH, "It is not over-reacting to have children use glare filters and foot-rests. Their spines and eyes need to be protected. And children who are comfortable learn better and faster."

Better learning effectiveness is undoubtedly a plus point in education systems around the world. And with mass computerisation being the order of the day for schools in today's IT age, the call for ergonomics to protect students will become increasingly more urgent.

Photo Courtesy of Serene Lam

Steps to go Ergo

1)	Use a computer filter: to reduce your exposure to glare, reflection and radiation.
2)	Clean screen regularly.
3a)	Place computer directly in front and about an arm's length away.
3b)	Position top of monitor at or below eye level.
4)	Use a document holder: to keep documents as close to the screen as possible and at the same height and distance.
5a)	Use a keyboard drawer to raise the monitor to an ergonomically-correct viewing position.
5b)	Keep keyboard and mouse at a comfortable level and maintain a neutral wrist position.
6)	Use a foot-rest to provide support for your feet and align yourbody for a positive posture.
7)	Allow ample room to move knees and legs under the keyboard support.
8)	Maintain proper posture with 900 or more at the hips and knees.
9)	Use a keyboard wrist rest to keep forearms and hands in a straight line.
10)	Alternate between activities and task that use different muscle groups.
11)	Keep shoulders relaxed and elbows close to the body.
12)	Keep head and neck in upright position.
13)	Give eyes a break by closing them and gazing at a distant object at regular intervals.