Occupational Hazards

Most of us who spend lots of hours at the computer as a way of earning our living likely don’t think of our jobs as having occupational hazards, but we really do have them.  They may not be as blatantly obvious as in other occupations—e.g. construction, or farming.   If you are not aware of hazards, you really cannot take steps to avoid them (which is much better than treating the effects of them later).  It is worth taking a bit of time to assess what these are and how to address them.

We’re all tired after a day’s work. That is to be expected; however, if you are getting up from your day at the computer with specific aches and pains that may be your body telling you that you need to evaluate your work environment.  Pain is the way your body will let you know that tissue damage is happening, so don’t ignore it.

Since most of us are freelancers, we are not going to have the benefit of an occupational hygienist to come by assessing why we have these aches and pains after a full day’s work.  That means that in addition to all the other tasks involved in running our business we need to take the time to see what needs to be done to improve our productivity and health.

One tool that can help with this is United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) website. There are checklists to make this a quick, easy process. What we think is comfortable may not be good for us in the long run.  We don’t know (or stop to consider) the stresses placed on our bodies until there’s pain, so we need to take advantage of tools like these for prevention of musculoskeletal disorder (MSD).

Even if you index part-time and work at the kitchen table, there are things you can do to increase comfort and reduce strain and musculoskeletal stress.  An ergonomically sound work area will go a long way towards promoting health and productivity. If your immediate response to ergonomics is visions of expensive chairs or special equipment, rest assured that many things that aid in preventing MSD don’t need to cost much, or sometimes nothing at all except a little effort on our part.

The OSHA checklists are a tool to make you aware of potential hazards. Sure, it will make you aware that prolonged use of your laptop while slouched on the couch is probably not good for your body.  That’s not to say that we can’t do it sometimes…we probably can get by with it if the larger portion of our computer work is done at an ergonomically position.  So that’s the first step to prevention: an ergonomic workstation for the bulk of your computer work.

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Editor’s note: This article is part of a series on occupational challenges for freelance folks who sit in front of computers most of the day. Look for more on the details of making your workplace human-body friendly from our resident indexer and DO, S. Anne Fifer.