MEMIC Safety Blog

Basic Kitchen Ergonomics

 Posted by Anthony Jones

 

This post is meant as a general guide to help anyone who needs information on making commercial or institutional kitchens a safer place to work. As we, all know there is often a dramatic difference between the customer and client sections of a facility and the kitchen area.  

 

A significant source of injury for kitchen workers -- along with lacerations, burns, slips, trips, and falls --  are back and upper extremity muscle strains, tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and other musculoskeletal injuries.

 

Recognizing risk factors that contribute to the development of musculoskeletal injuries and developing effective strategies to reduce them has a positive impact on reducing these injuries. The risk factors include forceful exertion, repetitive motion, awkward postures, static postures, and contact stress.

 

Early detection, reporting and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries is crucial to control the potential severe effects of this particular class of injury. Injuries treated in the early stages have a better chance of healing properly. Later stage musculoskeletal injuries may not heal completely but effects can be minimized if dealt with properly.

 

General controls for each of the identified risk factors include:

 

Forceful Exertions:

 

• Good body mechanics can decrease muscle force needed to carry out job tasks, which reduces the risk of developing a musculoskeletal injury.
• Teach workers to test loads before lifting and to plan routes before lifting and carrying the load. Use good lifting technique for lifting, lowering, and carrying loads.
• Separate heavier loads into smaller load quantities, or containers. Can heavier bulk items be purchased in smaller load quantities, or containers?
• Make use of adjunct equipment such as hoists, dollies, or conveyers to reduce the workloads. Install wheels on containers, wherever possible to allow pushing rather than lifting, carrying, or dragging. (Keep the wheels clean and in good working order)
• Avoid reaching below mid-thigh height, and above shoulder height.
• Place or store the heaviest items at mid height to make lifting easier, and eliminate lifting heavy items from the floor. Avoid simply placing the heavy items on the floor or bottom shelf.
• Avoid lifting or carrying items that are slippery, too hot, or unevenly balanced.

 Repetitive Motion: Repetitive motion for upper arms, elbows, forearms, and wrists can be defined as more than 10 reps per minute or for shoulders, more than 2.5 reps per minute.

 

• Minimize wherever possible repetitive motion to help reduce the worker’s risk of developing a musculoskeletal injury.
• Use mechanical or automated devices (food processors, potato peeling machines, and electrical mixers)
• Alternate working positions to avoid overusing any single muscle or muscle group. Alternate hands used to perform simple tasks.
• Try to combine or eliminate tasks whenever possible. Pace the work when performing repetitive motion tasks.
• Include job rotation, stretching, frequent rest periods, and task breaks.

 Awkward Postures:

 

• Move the body closer to the object, or move the object closer to the worker. Do not reach beyond the point of comfort.
• Wherever possible avoid excessive torso flexion by storing items between knee and shoulder height.
• Always face the objects you are working on, do not twist and reach behind or to the sides of the body.
• Work tasks should be adjusted to keep elbows as close to the body as possible.
• If the work is too high, lower the work, or raise the worker by a platform or footstool.
• Sit on a stool or chair rather than squatting, kneeling, or bending over while you work.
• Use tools or hand implements designed to keep wrists straight. For example, grill flippers with bent raised handles.
• Counter height should be a few centimeters below the worker’s elbow height.
• Shelf height should not be higher than shoulder height of the shortest worker. If necessary, provide stepstools.
• Place frequently used items in the most accessible locations. Place frequently used and heavier items 11 to17 inches from the workers. Place infrequently used and lighter items 21 to 25 inches from the workers.
• Wherever possible, move trip items or obstacles out of the way.

 Static Postures:

Static posture can be defined as body positions held without movement for more than 10 seconds.

 

• Anti-fatigue matting can provide a softer surface to stand on. Use non-slip surfaces and anti-fatigue mats to prevent slippage. Consider where the matting will be used and purchase the appropriate style and type for the particular applications.
• Footstools allow workers to raise a foot up, which helps shift body weight and reduces stress on the legs and lower back when standing for long periods.
• Sit-stand stools can allow workers to alternate sitting and standing positions. Sit-stand stools are most appropriate when the worker does not have to reach too far.
• Footwear should fit properly and have anti-slip soles. Consider the following:

• Does the footwear have enough grip?
• What type of flooring is in the kitchen?
• Is the footwear durable?
• Is there adequate ankle protection?
• What is the kitchen temperature range?
• What types of hazards exist and type of footwear selected? For example, what about puncture, burn protection, and crush protection?
• Evaluate the frequency of when the footwear needs replacement. Over time the soles will deteriorate, and the mid-sole will breakdown and lose the cushioning capabilities.

Contact Stress: 

• Add padding to sharp edges to reduce stress on the hands. For example, knife handles scissors, carts, bins, and countertops.
• Workers should avoid leaning against sharp edges or metal surfaces. Bevel or round off sharp edges on tables, ledges, and shelves.

Unconscious Behavior: An Obstacle to Change

 Posted by Allan Brown

 

Try brushing your teeth with your opposite hand, or sleeping on the opposite side of the bed, or place the mouse on the other side of the keyboard. Can’t do it, can you? All of these are unconscious behaviors that have established patterns, patterns that you repeat everyday, without consciously thinking.Changing these patterns and behaviors is difficult.   

 

Much of your work behaviors are repeated patterns. How you reach for the mouse, where you rest your elbows at your desk, how you sit in your chair are some of these unconscious events. 

 

What if you sit perched on your chair with a forward head posture reaching for your mouse. I see it everyday when I assess work stations. This posture usually results in neck, shoulder, back and/or head discomfort. Your solution often is to reach for the ibuprofen. 

 

How about addressing the problem and change your sitting posture? It’s typically not the choice because it’s difficult to change.  First, you have to ask yourself: How am I sitting? And, why do I sit like this? Am I sitting forward in the chair because the chair is too big or because the overhead lights are too bright and wash out my screen clarity? Are my eye glasses adjusted appropriately? Why am I reaching for my mouse? Is there no room to place it closer? Is my chair too low for my work space?  Is my knee space cluttered? Our bodies will adapt to the work space unconsciously, regardless if it creates good or bad posture.

 

If you are experiencing discomfort at your workstation, take a conscious moment and think about what hurts and what might be the cause. Make a change in your workstation and address the problem by changing your unconscious behavior. Use MEMIC’s  “10 Tips for A Perfect Fit” (available through MEMIC Safety Director) worksheet to guide you through creating a comfortable workstation.  It takes time to change old habits. 

Lifting: You Can Measure the Risk

  Posted by Bill O’Connor

If you have manual handling tasks at your place of work, don’t keep your workers safe by accident.  All manual handling tasks should be evaluated for risk of injury by considering the force of exertion, frequency, body mechanics, type of load and hand grip, as well as the duration that workers are lifting. 

 

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has devised a simple tool for making just that assessment.  By taking a few simple measurements of a lifting task, you can identify if the task is within recommended limits or not.

 

A lift analysis tool (in an Excel spreadsheet) can be downloaded from a website posted by Dr. Tom Bernard of the University of South Florida.  To use the tool, you follow these simple steps:

 

• Identify the horizontal distance of an object from the body at the origin and destination of the lift (Distance of hands from the ankle bones)
• Identify the distance of the hands from the floor at the origin and destination of the lift
• Identify the weight of the object lifted
• Identify the asymmetry of the torso (how much the shoulders are turned from the straight ahead position)
• Identify how many times the object is lifted per minute
• Identify how good the hand grip is
• Identify how much time per day is occupied with this task

 

To complete your analysis, enter your assessment results into the spreadsheet.  The macros in the tool will identify the recommended weight limit (RWL) and lifting index (LI – how much the task is above or below the RWL).  “What if?” scenarios can be evaluated for possible modifications to the task, in order to identify the best method of keeping the task at the RWL.

 

 

The Industrial Athlete

      Posted by Allan Brown

In professional baseball, a pitcher is removed from a game after pitching approximately 100 pitches.  He is sent to the locker room, shoulder iced down, and allowed to rest for the next 2 or 3 games before pitching again. This is done to prevent an overuse injury from occurring.  In our work environments, we don’t have the luxury to rest for 2 or 3 days after a hard days work. 

In the manual material handling (MMH) world, we are placed in situations that require us to lift, carry, move and repeat forceful activities throughout the day.  In fact, many of us depend on the days work to maintain our fitness level.  Our body adapts to the rigors of the work environment and hopefully we cope with the physical stress.  Rarely do we prepare the body for work like the athlete prepares his or her body for a sporting event.

If on any day we go over and above our routine we feel the aches and pains a day or two later.  That’s normal physiology.  Your body will either adapt if the activity is repeated or repair in 3 or 4 days if the activity is avoided. As an aging workforce, our physiology becomes less adaptable to physical stress. With age and overuse, the body can sustain an injury because the work exceeds the physical capacity of the worker.

In MMH jobs, you should prepare your body for the start of the workday. Your core needs to be warmed with a brisk walk or light jog in place. Once warmed up, you are prepared to stretch the muscles, tendons and joints that will be required to perform the physical tasks of the day.  When the body is warmed up and stretched it is ready for the workday.

Like a game, half time comes at lunch. The industrial athlete rests and nourishes the body for the second half. However, it is important to remember to warm up and stretch again. At the end of the day it is important to spend some recovery time stretching muscles that have been worked hard throughout the day.  This will assure the next day you are refreshed and ready to work.

MEMIC is an advocate of the Industrial Athlete and provides training, posters of stretches and brochures of movements to prepare the body for the rigors of the day. 

Lift with your legs? Use your head.

 Posted by Allan Brown

Proper lifting is one approach to reducing back injuries in a manual material lifting environment.  But before we discuss proper lifting, let’s first ask a question: Does this lift need to occur at all?

Lifts from the floor, for instance, can be accomplished with the use of a rack or shelving system.  A pallet lift is another way to eliminate lifts from the floor. 

If you determine that a lift is, indeed, necessary then it’s time to talk about proper lifting technique. It all starts with good body mechanics and, perhaps, a willingness to change.  We’ve all heard the phrase “use your legs and not your back.”   The image of a worker squatting and keeping the back straight comes to mind.  But often the worker can’t get themselves up from this position, let alone a box, too. 

Proper technique requires the worker to use their legs but also their large core trunk muscles.  Here are the steps for a proper lift:

• The inward curve of the low back should be maintained by contracting the body’s core to include the back and abdominal muscles.  
• The head remains up and in line with the trunk.  
• The knees should bend but not to complete flexion where the calf is touching the back of the thigh.  
• Lead with the head to initiate the lift upward.  A good visualization is placing a cup of liquid in your breast pocket and squatting to pick something up without spilling the liquid from the cup.  Keep your behind low and your head high.  Your head should never be at, or below, the level of your behind. 

   
Note: Head up, behind down and out.

Is There Any Science to Shoveling?

Science and shoveling? The two might seem a comical pair since we're talking about one of the most basic tools used at work and at home. It's the entry-level piece of equipment some readers probably used when they first started working. I've also noticed—at least around my house—that kids are allergic to any type of shovel! In any case, the lowly but capable shovel is used all over America’s jobsites and driveways and with that comes risks. Back injuries, rotator cuff inflammations or tears, blown-out knees and heart attacks are all common shovel injuries.

There are three reasons I’m covering this topic now. One, is because snow is in our future and that means moving it. Two, there’s plenty of earth, sand and similar granular materials year-round that need to be dug and moved. And, three, because it's an important topic to Sonny Curtis, a MEMIC safety guy for the construction industry. He has sent me some valuable information on the science behind shoveling prepared by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.

The information titled “Shoveling” offers in-depth strategy on everything from suggested scoops per minute (18-21 scoops per minute, with rest breaks built in) to the importance of shovel length (a snow shovel should come up to chest height) to safe throw heights and distances (between three and four feet at maximum). 

Ten Tips for a Perfect Fit

If you are reading this, odds are there is probably a computer screen involved. And you may be one of the 400,000 U.S. workers that lost an average of 8 days away from work due to a musculoskeletal injury in 2004, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Work-related injuries due to poor office ergonomics is a constant burden for many companies. When was the last time you or your employees have had a computer station ergonomic evaluation?  If it's been awhile, then try these recommendations from our lead ergonomist Karl Siegfried at MEMIC:

1. Position your head so your ears are over your shoulders
2. Place screen monitor 18-24 inches from your eyes
3. Adjust your monitor’s height so it’s in direct line of your sight
4. Relax your shoulders
5. Keep upper arms in line with your torso
6. Put elbows at 90 degrees and close to the torso
7. Make sure wrists are in neutral posture. They should not be bent up or down.
8. Place mouse on same plane as your keyboard
9. Use a chair with a good lumbar support
10. Keep feet flat on the floor. If your feet do not reach the floor, use a foot rest

For more information, download our Office Ergonomics: A Guide to Creating a Safe Office Environment.