Risk Management Bulletin

Employees who work all day at a computer are at risk for eyestrain. To help your workers protect themselves, we recommend that they follow these basic precautions.

• Look away from the monitor for 30 seconds, every 15 or 20 minutes. Look at or scan things at least 20 feet away to allow your eyes to focus in a rest position.
• Reposition the monitor 20” to 26” from your eyes (roughly the distance from your eyes to the end of your index finger with arm outstretched). Otherwise, you’ll be forced to sit or lean too close to the screen, or sit too far away. If your eyeglass prescription doesn’t allow clear vision at the 20” to 26” range, get it adjusted.
• Reset monitor height so that the top edge is even with your view when looking straight ahead. Then tilt the screen upward so that you’re not looking at the image at an angle. The optimal screen position is 10 to 20 degrees below eye level.
• Reset the monitor screen resolution, the Internet browser text size, and the zoom and font default in the operating system and in software applications so that text is easy to read. Start with a screen resolution of 800×600 for older CRT monitors and 1024×768 or higher for LCD (flat screen) monitors. Set the monitor refresh rate at or above 75 hertz (Hz) on older CRT models. Refresh rate is irrelevant for LCD monitors and is factory set, usually 60 Hz.
• Blink often (put a sticky note on your monitor!). The average blink rate is 22 times per minute. The rate goes down to seven per minute when looking at a monitor – which causes the eye lens to dry out. If you can’t get into the habit of blinking more often, use an eye moistener (saline solution).
• Relax your eye muscles. Put the palm of your hands over your eyes for a minute or so, once every half hour. This warms the muscles around the eyes, relaxing them.
• Minimize glare. Make sure the background light level around the monitor is about the same as the screen light level. Minimize direct sunlight or bright lights in front of the monitor or directly behind it.
• Adjust the contrast and brightness to levels you use when reading a book comfortably. A bright screen causes eyestrain.
• Use a paper holder to hold documents. Put the document at the same level as the monitor, or attach it to the monitor. This prevents repetitive neck and eye movement from paper to screen.

Fatigue plays a major role in shiftwork accidents. To improve the safety, health, and productivity of your shiftworkers, NIOSH recommends these guidelines:

• Keep the schedule regular and predictable. Shiftworkers should know their schedules well ahead of time so that they can plan their sleep and rest periods. Past studies of train accidents show a correlation between irregular schedules and accidents.
• Keep consecutive night shifts to a minimum. Some researchers suggest that employees should work only two to four nights in a row before taking a few days off. This keeps circadian rhythms (the body’s “clock”) from being overly disturbed and limits sleep loss.
• Avoid quick shift changes. Avoid a break of only seven to ten hours before rotating to a new shift, such as from morning to night on the same day of the week. Such a rapid change, makes it difficult for a worker to get much quality rest before having to go back to work. When they return to work after a quick shift change, most workers feel tired and sleepy, which can lead to accidents. At the end of a night shift, it makes sense to have a break of at least 24 hours before rotating the worker to another shift. Some researchers even suggest a 48-hour minimum.
• Avoid several days of work followed by four to seven-day breaks. Working for several days in a row followed by several days off can be highly fatiguing. Many shiftworkers find it difficult to return to the night shift after several days spent on a daytime schedule during their time off.
• Keep long shifts to a minimum. If workers are doing 12-hour shifts, two or three shifts in a row should be the maximum. Avoid longer night shifts. When it’s not possible to avoid them, move heavy work to shorter or day shifts and lighter work to the longer night shift.
• Examine rest breaks. Standard lunch and rest breaks taken during the shift might not be enough for night shift workers to remain safe and productive. In jobs that require repetitive physical work or great concentration, it’s better to have brief hourly rest breaks for recovery from physical and mental fatigue.
• Be aware of high-risk periods. Managers and supervisors of night workers should be aware of the high-risk periods when workers might not realize that they’re tired. Most accidents occur between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., near the end of the shift, when activity levels are high in the work area, or on the first two night shifts after working days or having days off.

If you supply your workers with company cell phones, laptops, BlackBerries, iPads, or other portable devices, and a worker is injured using the device when doing company business off site or off the clock, you could face a costly Workers Compensation claim.

The increasing use of mobile devices in the workplace is challenging traditional notions of work-related mishaps, creating a significant risk-management exposure for businesses.

Picture a woman in her car on the way to work. She has a laptop open on the passenger seat, a GPS on her windshield, another portable device open on the dashboard, a smart phone in her hand, and earphones in her ears, when she runs off the road and suffers a broken leg. Or picture a man walking down the street after he leaves the office. He’s so engrossed in checking work e-mail and texting on his BlackBerry that he’s oblivious to a crosswalk, stumbles when he hits the curb, falls, and is hit by a car. Both of these people might easily argue that their injuries were work-related.

Before the explosive growth of telecommuting and mobile devices, most employees worked in a defined physical location during a specified time. In 2009, 17.2 million Americans worked from home – a number that’s projected to double by the end of 2012. With mobile devices, people can (and increasingly do) work from: their houses, cars, clients’ locations, subways, libraries, bars, airports, parks – even at the beach; a survey by contact manager program Xobni showed that 59% of Americans check their work e-mail while on vacation.

Many of these workers believe that management expects, or encourages, this type of behavior. Even if this isn’t the case, your business could have some responsibility for incidents resulting from it – just as you might in harassment situations.

The solution: Ask yourself how much risk your business is willing to accept by delivering these mobile devices to employees in the hope of growing productivity. Then work with your human relations department to set “best practices” rules that define the scope and use of this technology away from the workplace – to create a culture that balances your employees’ professional responsibilities with their personal lives. This can present a serious challenge, especially with younger, tech-savvy employees who tend to blur the personal and the professional by using social media on the job, while checking on their work when they’re away from the office.

To learn more about how to protect yourself from this exposure please feel free to get in touch with our risk management professionals.

Nearly one of four people aged 64 to 75 remain in the workforce — and the number will to skyrocket as the Baby Boomers reach retirement age, but want to stay active. The good news: Older workers have a lower injury rate. The bad news: Their injuries tend to be more serious and require more time away from work.

Senior workers have specific safety issues. Their retention is often shorter, they’re more easily distracted (for example, by noise in their environment) have slower reaction times, declining vision and hearing, and a poorer sense of balance.

What’s more, they sometimes deny their deteriorating abilities, which can lead them to try working past their new limits

• These physical limitations lead to specific types of injuries for older workers.
• Falls caused by poor balance, slowed reaction time, visual problems, or distractions.
• Sprains and strains from loss of strength, endurance, and flexibility.
• Cardiopulmonary overexertion in heat or cold, at heights, using respirators, or in confined spaces.
• Health or disease-related illnesses, such as diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, coronary artery disease, or hypertension.
• Cumulative injuries after years of doing the same task, (such as truck drivers who experience loss of hearing in the left ear from road noise with their cab window open).

Look for these indicators that your older workers might need accommodations:

• Physical signs, such as fatigue or tripping
• Psychological or emotional signs, such as loss of patience or irritability
• Feedback from supervisors or co-workers on declining performance
• Numbers and patterns of sick days
• History of minor injuries or near misses

You can help protect senior workers by:

• Finding ways to help them work smarter, not harder
• Decrease activities that require exertion, such as in working heat or cold or climbing ladders
• Adjusting work areas, such as installing better lighting, reducing noise, removing obstacles, and decreasing the need to bend or stoop
• Redefining standards of productivity
• Learning your workers’ limitations, perhaps by conducting annual hearing or vision tests

Make sure that safety culture becomes an institutional value. For example, when co-worker feedback indicates that an older worker is having trouble, don’t fire the person. This will discourage honest input from employees who feel responsible for their co-worker’s loss of employment.

Our risk management professionals would be happy to advise you on developing a safety management program for your senior workers.

Overexertion on the job is a common cause of painful and disabling injuries that can lower productivity, damage employee morale — and generate costly insurance claims.

What’s especially distressing about these injuries is that they’re so easy to avoid. That’s where you come in. Warn your workers about the dangers of overexertion and how to prevent it. Begin by reminding them that it’s essential to avoid overexertion if there’s a history of heart disease in their family or if they’re advancing in age, overweight, or unaccustomed to prolonged physical activity.

Hours, weeks, or even a lifetime of physical harm can result from acts that take only minutes to perform, such as workers:

• Using incorrect techniques when moving or lifting heavy objects.
• Trying to “muscle” their way through a job by themselves when it would have been wiser to get help.
• Avoiding an extra trip when moving materials by adding an extra package or box to an already full load.
• Overextending their reach to paint “that one last spot,” just so they won’t have to descend a ladder, reposition it, and climb again.

Be aware that employees might overexert themselves in order to save time, avoid appearing “weak,” or bother co-workers. Encourage employees to follow such safe work practices as lifting correctly, know their physical limitations, and ask for help if necessary. Create an atmosphere of cooperation in which co-workers are always ready and willing to help when asked.

Let employees know that “no pain, no gain” — once a motto for bodybuilders and exercise enthusiasts — just doesn’t cut it these days. According to medical professionals, ignoring pain, and continuing to do whatever’s causing it, is neither smart nor healthy. The only “gain” will be more pain and perhaps actual damage to the body. Encourage employees who want to work safely and smartly to replace this outdated motto with a better slogan: “heed pain to avoid strain.”

Millions of teenagers are taking on their first summer jobs this year. It’s great for workplaces to have all these fresh faces and all that youthful energy and ideas. However, with the pluses come the minuses that result from teens’ lack of work experience. In one recent year, of 2.3 million U.S. teen workers between 15 and 17, thousands suffered on-the-job injuries that sent them to the hospital — and most of these injuries occurred within the first 12 months of employment (34 teens under the age of 18 died from work-related injuries).

Teenage workers face a variety of risk factors on the job. They lack on-the-job experience, including knowledge the physical, biological, chemical, and other hazards associated with the job. The widespread feeling of invincibility among teens might lead them to take unneeded risks. They might not understand their rights and responsibilities, as well as job tasks that are illegal for them. They’ll probably find it difficult to believe that an on-the-job injury might disable them for life. A desire to prove themselves can lead teens to do unsafe things. A reluctance to appear ignorant might keep them from asking safety-related questions. Finally, teenage workers might simply assume that their employer (you), like their parents, will protect them.

Help deal with these problems by providing safety training for your new teenage employees. The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), the National Institutes of Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( Oregon OSHA) have teamed up to provide training resources targeted to teens. Visit www.asse.org/teensafety for training presentations, quizzes, handouts, etc., including an online interactive game called the Zombie Project www.asse.org/zombieproject.

To train your teen employees, we’d recommend that you use these guidelines from Oregon OSHA and customize them to your workplace.

• Give teens clear instructions on the safety precautions to take for each task.
• Ask them to repeat your instructions and to ask questions whenever they don’t understand.
• Demonstrate — or have an older employee demonstrate — how to perform each task.
• Watch teens as they perform each task and correct mistakes until they get it right.
• Ask once more if they have any more questions.
• Keep checking to ensure that they’re continuing to perform their tasks correctly and safely.

If you’d like assistance in creating and implementing a teen worker safety program, please feel free to get in touch with our risk management professionals.

Heat waves are uncomfortable for everyone — and downright dangerous for those who work in the sun. Each summer thousands of outdoor workers experience heat exhaustion, which if untreated, can turn into heat stroke — a dangerous and potentially fatal condition.

Normally, the human “coolant” system uses perspiration and blood vessels to regulate body temperature However, when someone is working hard in the heat, especially when it’s also humid, this system can break down. The result: The worker suffers from a higher temperature, elevated heart rate (which can increase the risk of a heart attack), and impaired brain function — causing them to overlook hazards and make mistakes.

To help employers and employees cope with the heat this summer, OSHA is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to issue heat service alerts that will incorporate worker safety precautions, using the slogan, “water, rest, and shade.” NOAA also will include worker safety information on its Heat Watch Web page at http://www.noaawatch.gov/themes/heat.php.

To help your outdoor workers stay safe and healthy on outdoor jobs that expose them to heat, OSHA recommends that managers follow these guidelines:

• Provide heat stress training to workers and supervisors.
• Manage work activities and match them to employees’ physical condition.
• Emphasize that workers should take a break, drink some water, and rest for a few minutes in a cool place at the first sign of heat stress.

Workers should

• Build up your tolerance for working in the heat. Heat tolerance is normally built up over one to two weeks.
• Drink a glass of water every 15 to 30 minutes while working. This is the best way to replace lost body fluid and prevent overheating.
• Take breaks to cool down. A 10- or 15-minute break every two hours is effective when you’re working in very hot conditions.
• Adapt your work and pace to the weather.
• Be aware of any health conditions affected by the heat.
• Read medication labels to learn about any possible effects of heat and sun.

The disastrous Japanese earthquake/tsunami of March 11 drowned thousands of people – but the toll would have been far higher without the nation’s comprehensive emergency notification system. Thanks to radio broadcasts, text messages, sirens, firefighters’ door-to-door calls, and just plain instinct honed by years of disaster drills at school, people from towns and villages along the coast saved themselves by fleeing immediately to higher ground.

Every business needs an effective emergency communications notification system. This analysis should provide a good start on evaluating and selecting the most appropriate system.

Low-tech emergency notification systems, such as alarms, sirens, intercom systems, telephone calling trees, etc. all have serious limitations. Although calling trees are valuable for mass communications, they’re slow, subject to message error, and even complete breakdown from “missing links” or the failure of general voice communication systems. Alarms and sirens (used to communicate a facility evacuation or an emergency lockdown) are fast and can alert everyone who’s in a dangerous area; however, they’re poor in providing detailed information and ineffective outside of their audible range. Intercom systems are reasonably fast and can communicate detailed information, but are generally limited when providing information to people in multiple buildings. Nearly all low-tech systems send outbound messages, with a limited or non-existent ability to receive inbound calls (“two-way communications”).

High-tech emergency notification systems provide automated mass notification of detailed messages rapidly and accurately to a wide range of communication devices, including phones (landline, cell, and satellite), computers (e-mail and instant messaging), PDAs, Blackberries, and others. These systems combine speed, coverage, and detail far more effectively than low-tech systems. During emergency events, individual communication infrastructures often fail. The ability of high-tech systems to use multiple communication infrastructures offers another important advantage over their low-tech counterparts. High-tech systems can also target special messages to individual groups, such as first responders only. Some of them can receive inbound calls – a vital feature to confirm that key initial responders have received the message.

However, high-tech emergency notification systems do not offer a panacea. For one thing, cell phones (the most common method of notification) might be turned off. Although communication with cell phones is available by voice mail or text messaging, the system is vulnerable to a breakdown of the general voice communication infrastructure. Particularly for larger businesses, the “call capacity” – essentially the overall speed of the system – might be a serious limitation. To be effective, a system must communicate emergency information. Some of the more basic systems utilize only voice communications. Other important factors include ease-of-use and system cost

Although there’s no such thing as a perfect system, the best system should blend high-tech and low-tech systems. A good high-tech system, combined with adequate alarms and sirens appears to provide effective communications for all types of emergency events.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) such as carpal tunnel can create serious health problems for employees who work all day on a computer. Risk factors include repetition (the daily, lengthy use of a keyboard and mouse or trackpad) and awkward postures (extending arms to type, hunching shoulders, and/or sitting for long periods). A properly designed and arranged computer workstation can go a long way toward preventing MSD.

To help evaluate the safety and comfort of your workstations, OSHA has developed this checklist:

Working Postures. Are your workstations designed or arranged so that they allow the user’s:

• head and neck to be upright, or in-line with the torso
• head, neck, and trunk to face forward
• trunk to be perpendicular to floor (might lean back into backrest. but not forward)?
• shoulders and upper arms to be in line with the torso, about perpendicular to the floor and relaxed
• upper arms and elbows to be close to the body
• Forearms, wrists, and hands to be straight and in line (forearm at about 90o to the upper arm)?
• wrists and hands to be straight
• highs to be parallel to the floor and the lower legs to be perpendicular to floor (thighs may be slightly elevated above knees)
• feet rest flat on the floor or are supported by a stable footrest?

Seating. Is the chair designed so that the:

• backrest provides support for the lower back (lumbar area)
• seat width and depth accommodate the specific user
• seat front does not press against the back of knees and lower legs
• seat has cushioning and is rounded with a “waterfall” front
• Armrests support both forearms and do not interfere with movement?

Keyboard/Input Device. Is the keyboard/input device designed or arranged so that

• the device platform is stable and large enough to hold a keyboard and an input device
• the input device (mouse or trackball) is next to keyboard so it can be operated without reaching
• the input device is easy to activate and the shape/size fits hand
• wrists and hands do not rest on sharp or hard edges?

Monitor. Is the monitor designed or arranged so that:

• the top of the screen is at or below eye level so users can read it without bending the head or neck down/back?
• users with bifocals/trifocals can read the screen without bending the head or neck backward?
• the monitor distance allows user to read the screen without leaning head, neck or trunk forward or backward
• the monitor is directly in front of user, so that he or she doesn’t have to twist their head or neck
• the screen does not reflect glare from windows or lights, which can cause the user to assume an awkward posture so they can see information on the screen clearly?

With more prescription and OTC drugs than ever and more people taking them, there’s an increased risk of employees coming to work impaired by medications.

Although we’re all familiar with the dangers of alcohol and illegal drugs in the workplace, many businesses have paid little attention to the effects of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Yet, some of these drugs can cause serious impairments and could interact with other drugs or foods in ways that can jeopardize workplace safety. For example, a study the University of Iowa found that a dose of Benadryl – a common OTC antihistamine – can impair driving performance as much as alcohol. More potent prescription drugs can cause even stronger and more dangerous reactions, such as slowing brain activity and impairing thinking and judgment. Breakdown products from some prescription medications can stay in the body for days, affecting coordination, concentration, and judgment.

Be sure to educate your workers about possible impairments and how to use prescription and OTC drugs safely. Encourage them to inform themselves about the possible job safety risks taking medications. For OTC medications, workers can inform themselves about warnings and side effects simply by reading the label. To find out about possible impairment caused by prescription drugs, employees should speak to the healthcare provider who issues their prescription. For example, they should tell the provider:

• If they drive to work and/or on the job
• If they have a hazardous job (for example, operating equipment or handling dangerous substances)
• About any other medications (prescription or OTC) they’re taking; and
• Any reactions they’ve had in the past to drugs.

They should also ask about side affects that could affect job safety.

Require employees to inform their supervisor if they’re taking any medication that could cause impairment – especially if their job involves any kind of safety hazard. Depending on the risks, the supervisor might decide to reassign the employee temporarily while he or she is taking the medication.