Documents Ringelberg, J. Aleid 5 results

"Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) are a major occupational health problem in Europe, affecting over 40 million workers. Current EU legislation includes some ergonomic provisions related to MSD prevention, but does not adequately address specifically Upper Limb Disorder-related MSD risks. In neither case - equipment use or design - have any specific common methodologies to estimate or evaluate risks for MSD been framed at European level. The TUTB has always argued that ergonomic aspects cannot be divorced from product design and use. Ergonomics is one thing that cannot be tacked on after a machine has been built - it must be designed in right from the start. This guide offers a collection of estimation methods selected from a range of sources that we believe may prove helpful in estimating MSD risk factors in machinery design. It does not claim to be a "quick-fix" problem solver for evaluating every risk factor. With this guide, we aim to feed knowledge from the actual use of machines back to designers' and manufacturers' drawing boards. We mean to factor the end users' perspectives into the design process by showing how workplace knowledge can be channelled into the conceptual of machinery design."

"According to the Machinery Directive and the relevant horizontal standards, there is no doubt about the importance of considering ergonomic aspects in C-standards (standards giving provisions for specific machines). Nevertheless, the ergonomic content of standards has either been missing or poorly dealt with due to the lack of expertise in the standardization technical groups. At a workshop on ergonomics organised by CEN in 1995, it was concluded that an “Ergonomics guide” would be a useful means of improving the ergonomic content of standards for machinery design.
The step by step approach used in our guide, based on the rules of machine safety standardization laid down in EN 414 (rules for drafting and presentation of safety standards), has two main elements: it identifies and evaluates ergonomic risks generically and also provides a model for the use of B-standards for different ergonomic subject areas. Two points stand out in conclusion to our technical work: Given the difficulties of estimating risks using a conventional approach, there is a need for active users' participation when integrating ergonomics in standards. The summary of available horizontal standards compiled in this guide shows that certain ergonomic aspects have either not been well covered or have been neglected completely."