Occupational Health 7

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1. Highly Repetitive Motion

Intensive keying for at least 5 hours per day at this work site1 can cause muscle pain and joints injury, including carpal tunnel syndrome, inflammation of tendons, shoulder pain and back pain. Moreover, repetitive answering phone calls with typing will cause neck and shoulder pain.

2. Sedentary work environment.

Prolonged sitting or standing in this office1 is linked to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature mortality.2

3. Temperature

The interviewed employee felt cold due to the location of an air conditioner vent.1 Working in a cold environment can cause dry and sore throat, joint pain, and other cold injuries.

Noise Level

HVA system results in a significant increase in environmental noise to an average of 75 dBA with a high of 80 dBA. Research demonstrates significant increase in hearing loss in people with prolonged exposure to noise levels above 85 dBA.6 While the measured levels were below this threshold, these levels were still close enough to this threshold to have a potential contributory effect to hearing loss over time.

Answering Phones for Long Periods of Time

Besides excessive keyboarding during an eight hour shift, employees are also expected to answer the phones for one to two hours out of their day. In the video, it showed an employee demonstrating the movements that occur when answering the phone. The muscle movement include picking up the phone, holding the phone onto the side of the head, and typing while talking on the phone. The injuries or illness that can result from answering the phone is head or neck strain (due to having to hold the phone to the side of the head while typing). To reduce injury from this hazard, employees should all have a head set so that they are able to answer the phone (without having to hold the phone on the side of their head) and type at the same time.