Daily Bulletin

Six-year ergonomics project reports

He writes: "We developed several qualitative and quantitative ergonomics tools for injury risk assessment. We learned that some specific worker perceptions (psychosocial factors) and quantifiable physical variables related to job design (biomechanical factors), present at relatively high levels simultaneously, can increase the risk of reporting low back pain more than twenty times. This work earned an international award for scientific quality and importance.

"We have also converted risk measurement tools, usable initially only by researchers, into a software package called Ergowatch that is usable by anyone to predict injury probability. A presentation of this tool earned two prizes for quality and relevancy at a HEALNet national conference."

UW-based ergonomics research goes on, but the six-year Ergonomics Initiative has ended. Norman's 32-page glossy report about it includes not just what was done over the years but what formally published research papers resulted, and what kind of work needs to be done next.

"Of course," he writes, "the ultimate objective of an ergonomics initiative is not just to study risk but to reduce or eliminate it. Increasing quality, productivity and profit safely is of interest to everyone. . . .

We have attempted to tell others about lessons we have learned in a variety of ways. More than 1200 employees of Ergonomics Initiative partners attended short courses and others participated in three, two-day conferences. We contributed to training several highly qualified people (more than 15 including four M.Sc. and two Ph.D. students). We also presented 41 papers at scientific conferences and contributed 12 papers to the scientific peer reviewed literature, an important examination of the credibility of Ergonomics Initiative work by people who know the science. . . .

"We have learned an enormous amount about problems and successes in a very complex business -- the auto business. . . . We have also learned an enormous amount about what might work and what will not work in eliminating work-related injury from a very complex part of the system -- the people."

Partners in the Initiative were General Motors of Canada Ltd., A. G. Simpson Automotive Systems, The Woodbridge Group, the CAW and UW. When the study began, Norman was dean of applied health sciences as well as a kinesiology professor specializing in ergonomics. He resigned as dean in 1997 to devote full time to the last two years of the Initiative.

Outcomes from the Ergonomics Initiative -- two pages from the project's final report

1. Several groups of interacting risk factors account for almost half of the variability in the prediction of who will report work-related pain. These groups can be categorized as "Job Design" (biomechanical factors), "Worker Perceptions" (psychosocial factors), and "Individual" (inherited and behavioural factors).

2. Statistically, the most important category is "Job Design". This category affects the size of peak and cumulative forces on the body as well as forces on the hands and trunk and upper limb postures -- all proven to be very strong risk factors.

One of the major new findings in the Initiative is the epidemiological proof that cumulative forces are independent risk factors in addition to the risk from high peak forces. High cumulative forces are the result of high repetitions, major reductions in recovery pauses or prolonged work and can cause injury even if the peak forces in a cycle of work are low.

3. The second most important category is "Worker Perceptions". Perceptions, influenced by observation of company action, positive or negative, are extremely important and have been proven strong risk factors.

4. The least important category is "Individual" or personal factors such as height, weight, strength, lifestyle habits and behaviour. Many dollars are spent on trying to change this type of factor, for example by short educational courses, without first attempting to improve job design. Worker and management education is important, but it does not help to educate a worker about low risk load handling principles and then send them back to a job design that does not allow them to use the principles. Education of workers on lowering risk behaviour is not a substitute for improved job design.

5. To have the best chance of success, work site interventions designed to reduce the costs of work-related injury, pain and absence must be aimed at simultaneously reducing or eliminating as many proven risk factors as possible, particularly the "Job Design" and "Perception" factors.

It is not helpful to work on only one or two known risk factors and expect to see measurable reductions in injuries, in injury-related absenteeism or dollar cost savings. No single variable accounts for enough of the total cost to make a difference by itself.

6. Start by improving job design, not personal factors or perceptions. A participatory process of ergonomics change between management and labour is generally advocated. However, the previous history of relations sometimes reduces the willingness of either or both parties to participate for various reasons. Some companies are farther along the road to effective participation than others.

7. For an effective participatory process, participation by both management and labour in education to improve ergonomics knowledge of injury mechanisms and measurement of risk is important. This ensures discussion during the ergonomics change process is of high quality.

If job design change has been made and prototypes have been measured to show reduced peak and cumulative biomechanical loading, improvements in both physical risk and perceptions about management commitment, should result. In this way, two categories of risk factors have been acted upon simultaneously.

8. It is necessary to measure, not simply guess at, the proven risk factors to establish base-line information about status and to evaluate change in biomechanical loading and perceptions of personnel as a result of a program of intervention.

9. Checklists can be used only as a rough surveillance tool for identifying current or potential problems. They cannot be reliably used to quantify risk for the upper limbs -- arms and hands simply move too fast in most manufacturing jobs for adverse body joint angles to be estimated or even counted or timed reliably.

10. Computerized measurement systems are becoming more common and, we predict, will become industry standards in the near future. Whenever possible, risk and change in risk factors should be quantified.

The Ergowatch software package is one of the systems that has resulted from this Initiative and has been provided to the participating companies. At minimum, industrial engineers and joint health and safety personnel should learn how to use ergonomics software to validly quantify risk.

What's keeping the campus buzzing

The UW Stage Band today presents "Jazz on a Hot Summer Noon", a free concert in the great hall of the Student Life Centre. The music starts at 12 noon.

There are probably no Mongolians among UW's mature students, but a number of them will be lunching today at the Mongolian Grill as the mature students program holds its summer celebration. Last-minute information: phone ext. 2429.

It's acronym day in the Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology, as a 1 p.m. session will deal with "UW's Strategic Alliances for Learning, Innovation and Technology: COHERE, MERLOT and PLIANT". The event, led by Tom Carey and Liwana Bringelson of LT3, will take place in Dana Porter Library room 329.

The department of statistics and actuarial science presents a talk at 3:30 (Math and Computer room 5158) by Boris Sobolev of Queen's University. Title: "Use of Waiting-Time Data to Study Access to Elective Surgery".

"Communication, Conflict and Reconciliation" is the theme of the 17th International Social Philosophy Conference, to be held today through Saturday at Wilfrid Laurier University. Keynote addresses will be given by David Dyzenhaus of the University of Toronto, David Gauthier of the University of Pittsburgh and Martha Nussbaum of the University of Chicago, and a total of 72 papers will be presented at the event, which is co-hosted by Jan Narveson of the UW department of philosophy and James Wong of the department of communications studies at WLU. All sessions will be held z in the Science Building, WLU, starting at 3 p.m. today. The public is welcome, at no charge, on an available-space basis. For further information about the conference, contact Narveson at ext. 2780, or the philosophy department office at ext. 2449.

And David Gauthier of Pittsburgh, who's here for the conference, will precede it with a colloquium at 12:30 today in Humanities room 334, under the title "Reason's End".

A crowd from the Computer Science Club has an end-of-term dinner booked for tonight at Ali Baba's Steak House.

Jeff Weller, long time executive assistant to UW's deans of engineering, retired recently, and word arrives that there's somebody new in the job. Bill Pudifin, formerly of the internal audit department, arrived on the fourth floor of Carl Pollock Hall recently to take on the executive assistant's position.

The University Club still has seats available for the "Taste of Canada" dinner and wine-tasting on Friday, starting at 6:30 p.m. Says club manager James Brice: "An elegant five course native Canadian dinner will be served, and with each course a matching wine will be tasted, as presented by Mission Hill Wineries. This will be an evening of culinary delights as well educational. The cost is $75 per person; reservations can be made by calling the Club at ext 4088."

And finally, Tuesday's Bulletin mentioned that Habitat for Humanity is looking for people to help with a couple of local builds in July and August, and gave an incorrect phone number. Anyone interested in swinging a hammer on the projects should call the Volunteer Action Centre at 742-8610.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
| Yesterday's Bulletin
Copyright © 2000 University of Waterloo