Dr Gaveling with the chair.
Elbows at 90 deg; arms horizontal
Elbows out; twisted wrists
Use a foot rest not the castors
Audience participation
Most of us look down at the keyboard ...
..and this is us then looking up at the screen.
9.0 GUEST SPEAKER: Dr Richard Graveling - of The Institute Of Occupational Medicine
Laying out your VDU Workstation
The Chair introduced Dr Richard Graveling to the assembled members, but firstly pointing out that he had in fact stepped into the breach at exceptionally short notice, as we have lost contact with the planned speaker and the finalization of arrangements were only made the previous Friday.
Richard then pointed out to the group that he had no other visual aids other than "himself" and a chair borrowed from the College Office and whilst he may not present a paper on the original topic, he would so far as possible show the changes in the regulations which have been brought into place from the extension of the environments in which VDUs are now used.
Updated Regulations
The basic extension to the original regulations and guidance as the speaker saw it was the requirement on employers now to "risk assess" ALL workstations and not just those in use by a "user".
The issue of ensuring standards for home workers and Hot Desk Working he saw as very similar in that the often neglected element of the regulations one of education training was the means whereby the workstation could be set correctly, but only when the users understood WHY and HOW it was to be set.
Schedule content
Richard indicated that he felt the schedule having been set in the 80s has been overtaken by technology, but was still a basic list of kit which was necessary although now the levels of requirement are frequently exceeded. Chairs being a prime example and the simple office chair he had at the front was typical in that it was simplicity itself but more than met the requirements of the standard.
Seat backs must be adjustable Seats should have good lumbar support seat height must be adjustable. The standards hence does NOT state the seat back should be adjustable independent of the seat base, not does the lumbar support have to be height adjustable as such a bucket style of chair where the back rises with the seat and tips with the seat would meet the standard but would not be suitable for creation of a good ergonomic posture.
Education & Training
The schedule could be considered as a list of ingredients, but unless you train the employees in how to utilize them correctly it would be like supplying a shopping list to someone without a recipe no way could you expect the cake output to be exactly as expected. The need is not just to explain what has to be provided, but also on how to use it correctly and why, this is particularly important for the home worker who may not have someone else come to view the shortcomings of the set-up and also for the hot desk worker, who needs to have a measure of what is correct each and every day as the settings may well have changed.
Ideal body conditions
The speaker then got some audience participation in attempting to define the correct postural conditions to be aimed for.
Firstly he requested everyone sit with their hand hanging loosely by their sides. Then to look at the shape their hands were in that was the ideal at rest condition it is not with fingers and hand straight out, but slightly cupped. To hold the hand and finger straight takes a muscle loading which you should aim to reduce.
It is obviously not possible to type with your hand by you seat sides so your elbows must be bent at nominally 90 degrees and with a fixed height desk (most are) the seat will then need to be raised to make you forearms level and your hands at the correct position. It is common to find that most us tend to sit too low and then reach forward to the keyboard. Our settings often force us to push our arms out to the sides and then twist the wrists to get onto the keyboard which is a most unnatural position the expensive solution being to provide a split keyboard, but the easy answer is to sit higher. Some individuals will often hunch their shoulder to create this height with severe pain being generated in the shoulders and back as a consequence. Do beware of the "keyboard domination" pose where the individual tends to hunch over the keyboard
Incidentally the use of wrist rests is not considered to be good practice, especially the gel filled units as they tend to hold the wrists in one position and then force twisting of the hands. It is preferable NOT to rest the wrists on the desk top when typing as this forces the wrists and hands into an upward slope and being flexed beyond the ideal position, but if anything is provided it should be no more than a foam style block up to the same height as the keyboard surface. Remember, pressure on the wrists by resting them on something is increasing the pressure in the carpal Tunnel and could lead to WRUL in that way.
The vertically challenged individuals will now often require a foot rest as it is not a good position to tuck the feet back onto the seat base and beware the use of arm rests as they tend to force people into a hunched should posture.
The human body is not built to match the BS standard exactly in that we are all individuals with individual needs. The length of the thigh is an example. If the seat pan is built to the maximum size allowed by the standard, it will be too deep for the majority of the work-force, pushing them at the rear of their legs and forcing them to "perch" on the seat edge and hence have no back support. If the seat pan is made to the minimum size by the standard, then it will be too shallow for most of us and we will have to force ourselves back into the seat which will be a muscle loading for our back and legs to keep us on the seat.
The speaker promised he was not about to break into song, but he did point out that the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone etc and in fact when we sit down the lower part of the back which is in contact with the pelvis is put in strain, but despite this we do like to sit down and the legal requirement is there for us to have the facility to be seated where we can. It is important under this condition though that the correct curve is maintained in the back at the lower lumbar region not being forced into shape, but retaining the shape we had before sitting down. The ideal seat back position when we are seated is considered to be just back from the vertical so the our body weight is not just down the spine, but is in fact shared with the seat back rest.
The screen should be set to ensure the eyes are at a neutral position as for the hands. The eyes take a natural rest position at approximately 10 to 15 degrees down from the horizontal so when you sit up with your neck upright and gaze into nothing this will be the rest position for your eyes and this should be set to the top inch or so of the screen. While this position is ideal for the touch typist, for those who need to look to the keyboard on a more frequent basis the screen will possibly need to be set slightly lower to avoid excessive head movements up and down.
Summary
The body is designed for movement not for static conditions, so when you take a break make sure you physically move away from the seat
