Ergonomic Risk Assessments

Guardian Safety Ergonomic Risk Assessments

The ancient Greeks were probably amongst the first to understand the benefits of Ergonomics and Hippocrates is said to have prescribed how Surgeons should set out their workplace and the way tools should be positioned on their work tables.

Ergonomics can be defined as the study of designing equipment and tools to fit the human body, its movements and its cognitive abilities or simply put ‘Fitting the workplace to the individual’.

Employers are obliged  (under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 section 12, General Application of the Regulations 1993 and 2007 and EC Council Directive 90/2270/EEC,)  to assess the risks to  health and safety at workstations with particular reference to eye sight, physical difficulties and mental stress.

Many work related injuries are caused by repetitive motions, or poor postures adopted at workstations. By assessing the activities and the workplace layout, the interactions between people and equipment / machines and then redesigning the work layout or work flow, many workplaces injuries can be avoided thereby improving employee attendance, wellbeing and morale and reducing injury and lost time.

Very often, if we are too familiar with a task, we often cannot see that it could be done differently. Guardian Safety can assist you to carry out an Ergonomic Risk assessment.