Lesson 4 - Health and Safety

Welcome back. So, what were your thoughts?

Setting up your desk is important, so is making sure you sit correctly. The image below illustrates what could happen if you don’t!

Figure: Severe spinal damage at 0 kph

A web search of either of the terms ‘desk ergonomics’ or ‘DSE safety’ will provide you with a suitable checklist to complete an assessment. Here is a weblink to an example from the UK’s HSE (Health and Safety Executive):

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/ck1.htm.

Examples from this checklist include:

• Position of the keyboard, display screen and mouse

• Position of the furniture, e.g. desk and chair

• Working environment, e.g. lighting, noise, room to move

I hope you are all now sitting up straight and comfortably!

The exercise above raises some interesting points. An initial response to it might be asking why such a thing is important when there feels like more significant things to learn. Overcoming peoples’ reluctance to stop and think before diving into a task is one of the greatest challenges in H&S management. Organisations with the best track records in health and safety are strict in enforcing risk assessments before any new tasks are carried out – to the point where conducting them becomes a habit.

Another interesting concept from the above is that there are only two elements requiring attention. These are:

1. Unsafe conditions: is the desk too high? Is the screen flickering? Does the chair have lumbar support?

2. Unsafe acts: am I slouching or sitting upright? How often do I take a break and get up?

We will learn more about these later when we look at hazard identification in detail.