How Office Furniture Impacts On Occupational Health And Safety

When we think about possible work place threats to the occupational health and safety of employees, the kinds of scenarios that come to mind typically involve the type of incidents reported on the nightly news: scaffold collapses, slips with chainsaws, spilt vats of boiling oil, crumbling asbestos and leaks of toxic gases. These kinds of unfortunate work place events most certainly do contribute to the injury of employees in the industrial work place, but there are other, less often considered but nonetheless serious, threats to the health and well-being present in the corporate office-based work space too. Poor choices in office furniture design and arrangement can prove hazardous to employees in an immediate sense and in more cumulative long-term ways.

Once you start to think about it, it's quite easy to see how office furniture can impact on occupational health and safety in a variety of ways. Most contemporary workers spend eight or nine hours a day in a seated position. If their office furniture set-up is not conducive to comfort and ease of movement, employees can end up suffering a variety of ailments including lower back and shoulder pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, headaches and migraine. Most of these symptoms are a result of the restricted blood circulation that occurs when in the seated position that most office furniture tends to encourage. The detrimental effects that office furniture can have on employees is obvious. For employers, the result is unhappy, unhealthy employees and a likely increase in compensation claims.

Luckily, today there are ways that office furniture can be modified to prevent some of the more damaging occupational health and safety risks. For example, task chairs and desk chairs should be chosen that include ergonomic features such as adjustable support for the lumbar spine, as well as adjustable arm rests and seat sliders. Seat sliders, that allow for a better distribution of body weight by supporting the whole length of the leg, are an important feature often omitted in office chairs, but one to be strongly considered for occupational health and safety. Other aspects of office design and arrangement that are conducive to the health and well-being of employees include articulating computer keyboards and mouse platforms, desks and chairs of easily adjustable height and an increase in lighting to prevent squinting and eye strain.

Although the threats to physical safety posed by office furniture are less obvious than the kinds of hazards encountered in outdoor environments or industrial work places, they can be just as harmful to the ongoing health of employees and should not be taken lightly. There is a huge variety of alternative styles of furniture available today, so employers have no excuse for not providing their employees with body-friendly workstations.