The Business Bulletin
Are you sitting comfortably? Over the last few years the idea that sitting is really, really bad for us has taken hold and If you Google the phrase ‘Is sitting the new smoking?’ you get 198,000,000 results. According to James Levine, a professor
any health risks can be minimised
of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, “Sitting
through a number of simple
is more dangerous than smoking, kills
measures that won’t cost a fortune
more people than HIV, and is more
and you can implement today.
treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death,” he also said that “The chair is out to kill us.” While I agree that spending a significant amount of time sat down can be detrimental to our health,
What are an employer’s responsibilities? Before we look at ways to improve your workstation setup it is worth outlining an employer’s responsibilities as they owe a duty of care to their staff (if you are an employee or selfemployed feel free to go straight to the tips section). An employer has to comply with a number of regulations comprehensively covered in a 68 page document from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It covers office work and other environments where display screen equipment (DSE) is used and goes under the catchy title of DSE Regulations1992 as amended by the Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002 Employers have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their employees by: ■ analysing workstations to assess and reduce risks; ■ ensure controls are in place to monitor identified risks;
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■ providing information and training on the use of DSE; ■ providing an eye test on request; ■ reviewing a workstation assessment when the user or DSE changes. The employer needs to assess the risks associated with using DSE equipment and any special needs of individual staff whether their employees work from an office or from home. A poorly designed workstation can result in the development of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) ranging from a sore neck, painful shoulders, headaches and wrist pain to low back and hip pain. The HSE DSE regulations document referenced earlier includes a Workstation Checklist which can be used as a basis for risk assessment and to help ensure compliance with the regulations. While the checklist is a useful starting point, following it does not mean that a workstation has been set up correctly as it doesn’t take into
