er*go*nom*ic (er-ga-'na-mik) adj: designed to allow people and the things people use to interact in the safest, most effective, and most comfortable manner You work indoors. You're not on your feet all day and you do no heavy lifting. You have escaped from the brutal nature of most human labor. And yet at the end of the day you feel exhausted. You have vague aches and pains that you are embarrassed to mention to your doctor. If you do, the doctor gives you some equally vague advice: take it easy; don't push yourself; get more rest. If that doesn't work, maybe you're a whiner, a hypochondriac. Or maybe you're being attacked by your possessions. Perhaps you've been making do with a worn-out old mattress in the bedroom, an office chair that won't let you sit up straight, and a computer screen that you struggle to read with your bifocals. You bought a desk and a file cabinet whose colors complement each other perfectly, but you had no idea how downright irritating ordinary furniture can get if the only choice you bother with is matching style and color. Somewhere in this world is a reading light, chair, bed, perhaps even a keyboard and desk, built just for you. This book will show you how to find them.

"Sit Better" is a groundbreaking guide to the complicated, counterintuitive world of sitting. Author Dr. Turner Osler is a retired surgeon and a lifelong academic researcher with interests in public health and epidemiology. Throughout this book, he carefully shows that our switch to a chair-centered life has been a catastrophe for our posture, our core strength, our back health, and especially to our overall wellbeing. Sitting shortens our lives by two years on average. Although the book intends to show the inherent dangers of sitting, it also offers hopeful guidance so readers can avoid the harms of sitting and optimize their health and longevity. For the first three million years of human history our hunter/gatherer forebears lead lives filled with physical activity. Chairs were unimagined and squatting was the typical "resting" posture - a posture that required considerable muscular engagement. Over this long history, humans came to require daily activity to remain vital and healthy. So, it was unfortunate when chairs and sitting burst onto this scene just 100 years ago. We instantly fell in love with chair sitting, and most of us now sit for over 8 hours a day. It's estimated that there are over 70 chairs for every person in America. Unfortunately, humans are not adapted for the long periods of muscular inactivity encouraged by "ergonomic" chairs, and the health consequences have been catastrophic. Despite this grim news, Dr. Osler is optimistic. He believes that if we can change how much we sit, how long we sit for, and especially how we sit, the harms of sitting can be avoided. Indeed, he holds out the hope that sitting can be made healthful by switching to chairs that make sitting active, rather than passive. So, could sitting be harnessed to add more movement to our days? Dr. Osler shows how it's possible.

We all work at homeeven if we arent telecommuters, entrepreneurs or stay-at-home parents. Whether were paying the bills, helping children with homework, or operating a home-based business, time at home often requires us to spend hours at home workstations. Most of the time, we dont realize were using our equipment in unhealthy ways. Fortunately, you can reduce the wear and tear on your body by learning about ergonomics. In this guidebook, a longtime medical anthropologist shares tips and strategies that enable you to develop habits to work efficiently and comfortably; conserve your energy and work smarter; and use your brain in order to save your body. By tweaking your environment and the ways you use office equipment, you can change your life in all sorts of ways. Taking steps to reduce aches and pains can immediately improve your relationship with your significant other, children, family, and friends. Its essential to be smart about how you use sophisticated machines, especially the ones you use for prolonged periods. Overcome minor and even severe physical problems with Ergonomics for Home-Based Workers.

Modern knitters are faced with greater risk of musculoskeletal injury than knitters of a generation ago. This book explores risk factors that impact knitters' productivity, efficiency, and safety. Strategies for reducing risk of injury including early intervention and prevention are discussed. Methods for increased knitting efficiency and productivity are also explained.

This book is concerned with human factors and ergonomics research and developments in the design and use of systems and devices for effective and safe healthcare delivery. It reports on approaches for improving healthcare devices so that they better fit to people’s, including special population’s needs. It also covers assistive devices aimed at reducing occupational risks of health professionals as well as innovative strategies for error reduction, and more effective training and education methods for healthcare workers and professionals. Equal emphasis is given to digital technologies and to physical, cognitive and organizational aspects, which are considered in an integrated manner, so as to facilitate a systemic approach for improving the quality and safety of healthcare service. The book also includes a special section dedicated to innovative strategies for assisting caregivers’, patients’, and people’s needs during pandemic. Based on papers presented at the AHFE 2021 Conference on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare and Medical Devices, held virtually on 25–29 July, 2021, from USA, the book offers a timely reference guide to both researchers and healthcare professionals involved in the design of medical systems and managing healthcare settings, as well as to healthcare counselors and global health organizations.

Despite the apparently distinct differences between the disciplines of ergonomics and rehabilitation, they deal with the same issues, although at different ends of the spectrum. Keeping this in mind, Ergonomics for Rehabilitation Professionals explores their philosophies and goals, their parallel, divergent, and complementary aspects. It traces the

Since Canis lupus familiaris first shared a fire with man more than 15,000 years ago, dogs have been trusted and valued coworkers. Yet the relatively new field of canine ergonomics is just beginning to unravel the secrets of this collaboration. As with many new fields, the literature on working dogs is scattered across several non-overlapping disci

With contributions from an international group of authors with diverse backgrounds, this set comprises all fourteen volumes of the proceedings of the 4th AHFE Conference 21-25 July 2012. The set presents the latest research on current issues in Human Factors and Ergonomics. It draws from an international panel that examines cross-cultural differences, design issues, usability, road and rail transportation, aviation, modeling and simulation, and healthcare.

When faced with productivity problems in the workplace, engineers might call for better machines, and management might call for better-trained people, but ergonomists call for a better interface and better interaction between the user and the machine. Introduction to Ergonomics, 2nd Edition, provides a comprehensive introduction to ergonomics as the study of the relationship between people and their working environment. The author presents evidence from field trials, studies and experiments that demonstrate the value of ergonomics in making the workplace safer, more error resistant, and compatible with users' characteristics and psychological and social needs. Evidence for the effectiveness of each topic is incorporated throughout the book as well, which helps practitioners to make the case for company investment in ergonomics. In addition, the author outlines international standards for ergonomics that influence engineering and design and pave the way for a more precise form of practice. Extensively revised and updated, this second edition explains the main areas of application, the science that underpins these applications, and demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of implementing the applications in a wide variety of work settings.

Jointly hosted by the Ergonomics Society of South Africa (ESSA) and the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), this conference was attended by over 300 delegates and represented the largest and most prestigious gathering of eminent international ergonomists in the history of Africa. It also marked the beginning of a revival in concern for the well-being and productivity of people at work in South Africa.The conference aimed to juxtapose two great ergonomic themes – the under-developed ethos of the affluent societies and the technologically advanced ethos of the most affluent societies. The structure of the proceedings reflects this with the first section addressing the priorities of countries in transition and the last section addressing the priorities of the most industrially-developed countries, who have, by and large, long since solved the sorts of ergonomics problems currently of concern in the under-developed world. In between these, in a roughly hierarchical arrangement from micro- to macro- levels of analysis, are sections which collectively help span the whole field of ergonomics. Section overviews are provided to outline the topics included in each section.