Beating the office hazard blues

NEARLY HALF the U.S. labor force--upwards of 50,000,000 people--works in office buildings. The office game is almost all mental, but the physical toll can be great. Emotional stress, so often the precursor to physical ailments, can grow in an office like mangroves in a swamp.

One's emotional circumstances, feelings of job satisfaction or security, and self-esteem can create considerable stress. In an office, there also are supervisors and co-workers to deal with. Maintaining a psychologically healthy atmosphere can be difficult.

Considering that most office employees spend nearly one-third of their lives at work, it makes sense that they experience so many debilitating injuries and disorders, stress-related or not. Modern buildings and high-tech office equipment have been applauded widely for their functional design, but their full impact on their tenants' or users' health has yet to be determined fully.

While certainly less dangerous than most agricultural, construction, manufacturing, or mining work, office jobs can wreak havoc. There appear to be, according to occupational health experts, four primary sources of the most frequent physical problems in offices--air, chairs, lights, and computers.

Air quality is a growing area of concern because of the steadily increasing number of sealed structures. The so-called "tight building syndrome" (some call it the "stuffy building syndrome") has been used to describe a range of complaints that encompass eye, nose, throat, and skin irritation, headache, fatigue, dizziness, difficulty in concentration, and shortness of breath. In one study of office worker health, air quality was found to be correlated strongly not only to satisfaction with the office environment, but also to symptoms of upper respiratory tract distress.

Although it often is difficult to establish direct cause-and-effect relationships between office conditions and such illnesses, some serious ailments, such as Legionnaires disease, can be linked to microorganisms borne in air conditioning or ventilation systems. Similarly, chemicals in carpets, drapes, and copying machines; tobacco smoke; and building materials all may induce physical reactions or illnesses.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), energy conservation measures in buildings, together with the use of new products and materials and inattention to ventilation maintenance, often are at the root of tight/stuffy building problems. In half the cases studied by NIOSH over eight years, inadequate ventilation was considered responsible.

Chairs. Whether at a work station or a simple desk, the chair used can be of critical importance to health and happiness. The most common complaint of back and neck aches is related directly to the design and condition of the chair.

Besides musculoskeletal injuries resulting from remaining in a stationary position for too long, most problems can be traced to poor lumbar (low back) support. Stools that are backless or chairs where the seat and back support are too widely separated always should be avoided since they give no lumbar support.

Similarly, backless kneeling chairs, sort of the waterbeds of office furniture, aren't as good as their hype. Some people may find they help, but there is no real evidence of their worth. Indeed, with a structure that eliminates any back rest for lumbar support and forces the knees to bear the entire body's weight, for which they are not designed, there is substantial evidence that the kneeling chairs are more a danger than a decent alternative.

So, besides a firm, yet responsive, backrest, what should you look for in a good chair? One adjustable enough to truly fit your body, giving your legs good circulation (feet should be able to rest flat on the floor with knees bent 90 degrees), seat and back contoured to the curves of the thighs and back, and adjustable armrests that can be used to take some of the load off when you type is best. A swiveling and tilting model can be convenient as well as fatigue-fighting, especially when working in several positions.

Poor lighting may lead to headaches or fatigue. One of the more common lighting problems--a desktop in shadow--easily can be taken care of with a desk lamp. Even in fluorescently lighted offices where workers can not control the overhead lighting in their own area, adding desk lamps in combination with reducing fluorescent lighting by unscrewing a bulb or two may be a soothing help.

Few people can tolerate fluorescent light that is not in a certain intensity range. The recommended range is 100-150 fc (footcandles).

Eyestrain from dim lighting or harsh shadows should be correctable in most cases. Many of the vision problems office workers have today, however, are related to the computer age.

Computers

With more than 70,000,000 computers expected to be in use this year, the machines and their video display terminals (VDTs) have become almost as common in American offices as telephones.