Tag: Ergonomics

Part 3

We spend more time sitting than any other postures; watching Television, driving kids to school, to office , through the office hours, and  through traffic jams. What is fairly well known about the primary seated professions is that individuals engaged in some of them such as Civil servants and Bank workers  may be at increased risk of developing problems associated with the metabolic syndrome.

However public health education has improved  public awareness and perception of  hypertension, obesity and diabetes mellitus ,whereas the number of young adults going down with bone  and joint pains and abusing pain drugs is now increasing. These pain drugs have one side effect that is common to them; they are ulcerogenic and so a  common co-morbidity  is peptic ulcer disease.

The human spine even without any load on the head carries weight equivalent to about 30 to 40% of the  total body weight.  Thus it(the vertebral column or spine)becomes dangerously loaded in the sitting positions . The  lower back followed by the  neck are the main portions of the spine mostly involved in distribution of shear, torsion and compressive forces in most situations.

The spine in young adults  contain more water and is  better able to cope when unusual conditions prevail. Adult spines contain much less water and with  diminishing quantities of proteins  in the  soft tissue support system, all that is required is a single situation of  prolonged sitting to set in motion conditions that either bring forth chronic bone and joint diseases or cause permanent damage to delicate regions of the spinal cord bearing vertebral column.

Primary standing and walking occupation: Dentists, Physicians, Surgeons, Teachers, Security personnel, Soldiers , street traders and Cosmetologists are some of the groups who are at increased risk for the development of degenerative problems of the joints and bones that may  , become crippling and which  once developed are difficult to completely eradicate, no matter what medical or surgical interventions are  applied.

To maintain and sustain the erect posture while performing other tasks involves the recruitment of many bones , muscles and ligaments with the coordination of the nervous system(central and autonomic). It is costly in terms of energy to do so and the body tries to utilize postures which involve expenditure of least amount of energy. In occupations involving prolonged standing and walking, biomechanical stability is achieved at a huge cost to the entire body ,including the brain, which relies on glucose as the main source of energy. Frequently ,even soldiers and athletes who have been conditioned to maintain normal sagittal balance  under different shades of physical stress have simply dropped to the ground after standing for periods longer than usual. There is a critical limit in terms of the extent the muscles and ligaments can hold the bones and joints, beyond which abnormal coupling and uncoupling take place. Muscles  and ligaments are stretched beyond capacity and simply give way for bone on bone contact, erosion and reactive changes. Where possible tasks should be designed with allowance for rest periods and shift duties .

Primary stooping and squatting occupation: Mason tenders, Auto mechanics,  Engineers, Farmers and various categories of factory workers engaged in manual materials handling fall in this group.  Members of this group ;in particular Farmers are particularly vulnerable to work related musculoskeletal disorders; one reason being that they squat, stoop, and at times twist to effectively perform certain tasks; postures that stretch and twist the ends of bones and the ligaments attached to them.  Particularly for the farmer who repetitively  bends  down low to weed several acres of farmland with  crude farm tools, the fish farmer who throws nets, while standing in a small boat , the incremental damage to the spine which in these postures behaves like a beam is  grossly underestimated.  Outside the few who are engaged in the mechanized system of agriculture, many farmers live long enough to see their grand children but are also dying  from crippling bone and joint problems.

Outside these categories are the disorders  occasioned by physical activities related to Sports , recreation, and daily living. Hastily arranged and designed training facilities can endanger the lives of athletes . The science of kinematics as applied to ergonomics(and biomedical engineering)can only have it’s strongest roots in Human anatomy, to better understand how peak performances can be produced from  groups of  healthy men and women trained with facilities which were designed in accordance with ergonomic principles using  country specific reliable anthropometric data.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The presidential pronouncement hinting at a return to Agriculture as an alternative to oil is a very good development ; what brings that feeling of despair is when farming is discussed by governments only in terms of fertilizers . Governments should as a matter of urgency partner with Schools  and Universities to  quickly establish demonstration farms in many of the arable lands as can be found every where in the country.  State governors should be encouraged  to become actively involved  with take off financial assistance .This  will help reduce recurrent expenditure and  improve their financial positions . In any back to land or school to land program, emphasis should be on sustainability .

There should now be a change towards modern farming tools such as  tractors, harvesters, incubators, milking machines, genetically modified grains ,fruits ,vegetables and livestock .Not every body has the physical and mental  capacity for every thing and so careful selection can separate the serious minded from those likely  to put clogs in the wheels  bearing the pot of success.

Much has been said about the unbearable sanitary conditions that students in Nigerian Government owned tertiary institutions face . It is also important to add that except in very few universities, the chairs and tables in these universities are unremarkable . Staff and students face very similar conditions . It is  irresponsible to complain about falling standards of education when staff and students find themselves enduring  very harsh learning conditions, struggling and coping with many odds.

It will be recalled that when in 2010 a mine collapsed in Chile, a capsule in the form of a space ship was constructed and was used successfully to bring out the survivors. This was based on anthropometric data of workers. It is time we began to have such country specific  data drawn from workers  engaged in  different  fields   of industries

Where applicable, any policy that empowers relevant authorities to make  comfortable chairs and tables available for only the most senior offices  in Schools , Universities , Hospitals ,Offices and Factories should be abolished. The curves built into the human spine by the creator is to ensure that in any given position, it is able to bear weight three times that which is possible for one that is straight. The so called executive chairs maintain these curves and prevent or delay the onset of osteoarthritis . Every one  who needs a chair desires  to use any of such chairs, built so that the head, neck, upper back and the hollow at the lower back are placed in such a way that the muscles are less active as it should be in sitting and the load on the spine is reduced

You can only have healthy adults if you care about the health of children; so as part of the School health program, the chairs and desks in schools and other necessary facilities should be inspected as regularly as possible . Where students sit on the floor with the body folded to form the letter c, or where they are squeezed into small spaces with feet suspended in space instead of being on the floor, it is difficult to achieve any thing above 45% pass in  Maths and English  papers of the WASC exams.

 

Concluded

We spend more time sitting than any other postures; watching Television, driving kids to school, to office , through the office hours, and  through traffic jams. What is fairly well known about the primary seated professions is that individuals engaged in some of them such as Civil servants and Bank workers  may be at increased risk of developing problems associated with the metabolic syndrome.

However public health education has improved  public awareness and perception of  hypertension, obesity and diabetes mellitus ,whereas the number of young adults going down with bone  and joint pains and abusing pain drugs is now increasing. These pain drugs have one side effect that is common to them; they are ulcerogenic and so a  common co-morbidity  is peptic ulcer disease.

The human spine even without any load on the head carries weight equivalent to about 30 to 40% of the  total body weight.  Thus it(the vertebral column or spine)becomes dangerously loaded in the sitting positions . The  lower back followed by the  neck are the main portions of the spine mostly involved in distribution of shear, torsion and compressive forces in most situations.

The spine in young adults  contain more water and is  better able to cope when unusual conditions prevail. Adult spines contain much less water and with  diminishing quantities of proteins  in the  soft tissue support system, all that is required is a single situation of  prolonged sitting to set in motion conditions that either bring forth chronic bone and joint diseases or cause permanent damage to delicate regions of the spinal cord bearing vertebral column.

Primary standing and walking occupation: Dentists, Physicians, Surgeons, Teachers, Security personnel, Soldiers , street traders and Cosmetologists are some of the groups who are at increased risk for the development of degenerative problems of the joints and bones that may  , become crippling and which  once developed are difficult to completely eradicate, no matter what medical or surgical interventions are  applied.

To maintain and sustain the erect posture while performing other tasks involves the recruitment of many bones , muscles and ligaments with the coordination of the nervous system(central and autonomic). It is costly in terms of energy to do so and the body tries to utilize postures which involve expenditure of least amount of energy. In occupations involving prolonged standing and walking, biomechanical stability is achieved at a huge cost to the entire body ,including the brain, which relies on glucose as the main source of energy. Frequently ,even soldiers and athletes who have been conditioned to maintain normal sagittal balance  under different shades of physical stress have simply dropped to the ground after standing for periods longer than usual. There is a critical limit in terms of the extent the muscles and ligaments can hold the bones and joints, beyond which abnormal coupling and uncoupling take place. Muscles  and ligaments are stretched beyond capacity and simply give way for bone on bone contact, erosion and reactive changes. Where possible tasks should be designed with allowance for rest periods and shift duties .

Primary stooping and squatting occupation: Mason tenders, Auto mechanics,  Engineers, Farmers and various categories of factory workers engaged in manual materials handling fall in this group.  Members of this group ;in particular Farmers are particularly vulnerable to work related musculoskeletal disorders; one reason being that they squat, stoop, and at times twist to effectively perform certain tasks; postures that stretch and twist the ends of bones and the ligaments attached to them.  Particularly for the farmer who repetitively  bends  down low to weed several acres of farmland with  crude farm tools, the fish farmer who throws nets, while standing in a small boat , the incremental damage to the spine which in these postures behaves like a beam is  grossly underestimated.  Outside the few who are engaged in the mechanized system of agriculture, many farmers live long enough to see their grand children but are also dying  from crippling bone and joint problems.

Outside these categories are the disorders  occasioned by physical activities related to Sports , recreation, and daily living. Hastily arranged and designed training facilities can endanger the lives of athletes . The science of kinematics as applied to ergonomics(and biomedical engineering)can only have it’s strongest roots in Human anatomy, to better understand how peak performances can be produced from  groups of  healthy men and women trained with facilities which were designed in accordance with ergonomic principles using  country specific reliable anthropometric data.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The presidential pronouncement hinting at a return to Agriculture as an alternative to oil is a very good development ; what brings that feeling of despair is when farming is discussed by governments only in terms of fertilizers . Governments should as a matter of urgency partner with Schools  and Universities to  quickly establish demonstration farms in many of the arable lands as can be found every where in the country.  State governors should be encouraged  to become actively involved  with take off financial assistance .This  will help reduce recurrent expenditure and  improve their financial positions . In any back to land or school to land program, emphasis should be on sustainability .

There should now be a change towards modern farming tools such as  tractors, harvesters, incubators, milking machines, genetically modified grains ,fruits ,vegetables and livestock .Not every body has the physical and mental  capacity for every thing and so careful selection can separate the serious minded from those likely  to put clogs in the wheels  bearing the pot of success.

Much has been said about the unbearable sanitary conditions that students in Nigerian Government owned tertiary institutions face . It is also important to add that except in very few universities, the chairs and tables in these universities are unremarkable . Staff and students face very similar conditions . It is  irresponsible to complain about falling standards of education when staff and students find themselves enduring  very harsh learning conditions, struggling and coping with many odds.

It will be recalled that when in 2010 a mine collapsed in Chile, a capsule in the form of a space ship was constructed and was used successfully to bring out the survivors. This was based on anthropometric data of workers. It is time we began to have such country specific  data drawn from workers  engaged in  different  fields   of industries

Where applicable, any policy that empowers relevant authorities to make  comfortable chairs and tables available for only the most senior offices  in Schools , Universities , Hospitals ,Offices and Factories should be abolished. The curves built into the human spine by the creator is to ensure that in any given position, it is able to bear weight three times that which is possible for one that is straight. The so called executive chairs maintain these curves and prevent or delay the onset of osteoarthritis . Every one  who needs a chair desires  to use any of such chairs, built so that the head, neck, upper back and the hollow at the lower back are placed in such a way that the muscles are less active as it should be in sitting and the load on the spine is reduced

You can only have healthy adults if you care about the health of children; so as part of the School health program, the chairs and desks in schools and other necessary facilities should be inspected as regularly as possible . Where students sit on the floor with the body folded to form the letter c, or where they are squeezed into small spaces with feet suspended in space instead of being on the floor, it is difficult to achieve any thing above 45% pass in  Maths and English  papers of the WASC exams.

 

Concluded

Depending on many  factors, Physical activities of daily living, occupation and sports are capable of causing all kinds of damage to the muscles and skeleton of the body .

When a sports man or woman trains with poorly designed equipment, he will not only fail to win a medal,  he might go down with very serious injuries and even die . On the other hand, office space , machines and  chairs designed for  the traditional Chinese populations are likely to pose serious problems for individuals from Germany

Also  the  strict and peculiar   safety requirements  in passenger aircraft cabin can not for any reasons be ignored. Obviously , it is safer for a morbidly  obese individual(BMI over 40kg/m2) to be a passenger than  the pilot in the cabin flying a Boeing 779 Aircraft.

Again if basket ball players were to be selected from a  population of men  5feet on the average, they would need to do twice as much jumping in order to even make contact with the ball

The number one swimming champion of the world; Michael Phleps continues to make and  break world records  because besides the swimming pool, he has access to, and  trains with  various  categories of equipment .These are equipment designed in accordance with his unusual physical anthropometry(external body measurements)

In the industrialized world, health and safety of humans are given serious considerations in the design of Homes, Churches, Schools, offices, factories, Air craft , hostels, Cinema houses Stadia, Swimming pools , Military hard ware etc. They have come to understand that serious problems arise when design requirements of  tools are ignored.

 

On the average ,the  life span of a Nigerian male is about 45 years and for Nigerian woman , 47 years. The implication of this is that, any male or female Nigerian currently older than 50 years should take matters of health seriously. Any one below the age of fourteen is considered to be a child; at least for now. Above the age of 65 years, the Nigerian African is believed to have reached the peak of his capacity to perform  given physical social and mental tasks  . Clinically and  precisely from  research findings, and current understanding of human Anatomy, this is not  absolutely correct.  Generally , individuals from 15 to 65 years are regarded as the productive age group. The  collective and individual ability of persons and workers in this group to give their best depends on how physically sound they are, the tools at their disposal and the working environment. A major reason for rapid decline in the ability of old adults in the low socioeconomic class to perform certain tasks is the scarcity of opportunities; they are just not there.  After retirement, pension funds are stolen and many of them go back to the villages where the only option is  low scale farming with hoes and cutlasses that cause them to die early.

For the young ones finding it increasingly difficult to pass the prescribed pre university exams, part of the blame must go to the authorities .  Despite endless levies forced on parents, many schools and universities have nothing but haphazardly assembled chairs and tables for students and staff. Others  boldly provide  cement blocks and pieces of wood for staff and students. Yet Kids and Students are forced to study under these conditions, take additional lessons after formal school hours and partake in other regular chores.  Though public schools are mostly notorious in this aspect of the problem, many other private schools and universities are not inclined towards providing healthy learning environment for staff and students.

Usually  in higher institutions  of learning, special chairs, tables and other office equipment are provided for principal officers. Among other things, such chairs are spacious enough  to accommodate even the grossly obese. The chairs also have provisions for the head and arms.  Yet still it has to be  noted that only very few of these chairs   have the  small but  important  padding  necessary to fill  the hollow in the lower back .

In nearly every establishment , complex sociological issues , intrigues  and pull him down attitude demotivate  staff to the extent of affecting performance and productivity. Management staff get their choice of tables, chairs , computers and other office desirables. The office of the  Headmaster, Principal and Vice principal will have similar chairs, commonly referred to as executive chairs. Similar and in fact better ones in terms of ergonomics are available for chief executive officers in industries and government.

Outside these upper classes, every other person is provided with something to use, either  as a chair or a table. For the ordinary worker in the civil service, factory or workshop, ill fitting chairs and tables combine with long hours of sitting ,to bring about the early development of degenerative bone and joint diseases. The chief executive may have problems with stress management, Diabetes mellitus or Hypertension depending on life style choice , attitude and perception. However, if he develops bone and joint disorders, it is more likely to be as a result of over indulgence ;  too much meat ,dairy products and sweet things in the diet, too much alcohol and lack of exercise .

Among the individual factors responsible for  healthy living, the effect of  the physical activities of daily living ,occupation and sports are often ignored.  These activities impose on humans certain unavoidable postures ,and  unlike in the civilized world, not many people are aware of the effect of these postures on the muscles and skeleton of the human body.  Consider  as an example what you see in our  slaughter houses, where every thing is done on the floor and the body parts are scattered all over the place. Apart from the terrible health implications for consumers of meat, there is also the double jeopardy of the workers in these places getting infectious diseases from these animals in addition to developing muscle, bone and joint diseases from the stooping and squatting postures imposed by the design of their jobs .The conditions in most of the factories  in Nigeria are similar, as more than 80% of the tasks are floor based. The conditions are different in the developed areas of the world ,where things are done properly , and policy makers place the health and safety of workers in the priority list in the design of  equipment, offices, factories , Schools, and Hospitals. In these places, floor based activities are kept to the minimum, and nearly all the tasks are ceiling based.  Body parts of animals are hygienically wrapped in cellophane and hung.  Lawn mowers have replaced machetes, and ceiling based lifters and robots are every where in factories and offices.

It is interesting to note that for over twenty years, Japanese have been working on robots with emphasis on human factor engineering. They took off from their understanding of human anatomy , and with the knowledge that certain parts of the body are bioengineered to behave like machines of the first, second and third order. As a result, hotels in Japan now have robots that help ferry bags and suit cases from reception to rooms, there are computers which make other computers. The typical Japanese man is not likely to die sorrowing on osteoarthritis .

With regards to ergonomics, occupation in Nigeria can be  arranged into  three broad categories as here under:

Primary seated occupation: Civil servants, Bankers, Computer operators and Tailors are the main professionals in this group.  School teachers and Lecturers spend long hours preparing notes .They also sit for long periods going  through hundreds of answer booklets.

• To be continued

Depending on many  factors, Physical activities of daily living, occupation and sports are capable of causing all kinds of damage to the muscles and skeleton of the body .

When a sports man or woman trains with poorly designed equipment, he will not only fail to win a medal,  he might go down with very serious injuries and even die . On the other hand, office space , machines and  chairs designed for  the traditional Chinese populations are likely to pose serious problems for individuals from Germany

Also  the  strict and peculiar   safety requirements  in passenger aircraft cabin can not for any reasons be ignored. Obviously , it is safer for a morbidly  obese individual(BMI over 40kg/m2) to be a passenger than  the pilot in the cabin flying a Boeing 779 Aircraft.

Again if basket ball players were to be selected from a  population of men  5feet on the average, they would need to do twice as much jumping in order to even make contact with the ball

The number one swimming champion of the world; Michael Phleps continues to make and  break world records  because besides the swimming pool, he has access to, and  trains with  various  categories of equipment .These are equipment designed in accordance with his unusual physical anthropometry(external body measurements)

In the industrialized world, health and safety of humans are given serious considerations in the design of Homes, Churches, Schools, offices, factories, Air craft , hostels, Cinema houses Stadia, Swimming pools , Military hard ware etc. They have come to understand that serious problems arise when design requirements of  tools are ignored.

 

On the average ,the  life span of a Nigerian male is about 45 years and for Nigerian woman , 47 years. The implication of this is that, any male or female Nigerian currently older than 50 years should take matters of health seriously. Any one below the age of fourteen is considered to be a child; at least for now. Above the age of 65 years, the Nigerian African is believed to have reached the peak of his capacity to perform  given physical social and mental tasks  . Clinically and  precisely from  research findings, and current understanding of human Anatomy, this is not  absolutely correct.  Generally , individuals from 15 to 65 years are regarded as the productive age group. The  collective and individual ability of persons and workers in this group to give their best depends on how physically sound they are, the tools at their disposal and the working environment. A major reason for rapid decline in the ability of old adults in the low socioeconomic class to perform certain tasks is the scarcity of opportunities; they are just not there.  After retirement, pension funds are stolen and many of them go back to the villages where the only option is  low scale farming with hoes and cutlasses that cause them to die early.

For the young ones finding it increasingly difficult to pass the prescribed pre university exams, part of the blame must go to the authorities .  Despite endless levies forced on parents, many schools and universities have nothing but haphazardly assembled chairs and tables for students and staff. Others  boldly provide  cement blocks and pieces of wood for staff and students. Yet Kids and Students are forced to study under these conditions, take additional lessons after formal school hours and partake in other regular chores.  Though public schools are mostly notorious in this aspect of the problem, many other private schools and universities are not inclined towards providing healthy learning environment for staff and students.

Usually  in higher institutions  of learning, special chairs, tables and other office equipment are provided for principal officers. Among other things, such chairs are spacious enough  to accommodate even the grossly obese. The chairs also have provisions for the head and arms.  Yet still it has to be  noted that only very few of these chairs   have the  small but  important  padding  necessary to fill  the hollow in the lower back .

In nearly every establishment , complex sociological issues , intrigues  and pull him down attitude demotivate  staff to the extent of affecting performance and productivity. Management staff get their choice of tables, chairs , computers and other office desirables. The office of the  Headmaster, Principal and Vice principal will have similar chairs, commonly referred to as executive chairs. Similar and in fact better ones in terms of ergonomics are available for chief executive officers in industries and government.

Outside these upper classes, every other person is provided with something to use, either  as a chair or a table. For the ordinary worker in the civil service, factory or workshop, ill fitting chairs and tables combine with long hours of sitting ,to bring about the early development of degenerative bone and joint diseases. The chief executive may have problems with stress management, Diabetes mellitus or Hypertension depending on life style choice , attitude and perception. However, if he develops bone and joint disorders, it is more likely to be as a result of over indulgence ;  too much meat ,dairy products and sweet things in the diet, too much alcohol and lack of exercise .

Among the individual factors responsible for  healthy living, the effect of  the physical activities of daily living ,occupation and sports are often ignored.  These activities impose on humans certain unavoidable postures ,and  unlike in the civilized world, not many people are aware of the effect of these postures on the muscles and skeleton of the human body.  Consider  as an example what you see in our  slaughter houses, where every thing is done on the floor and the body parts are scattered all over the place. Apart from the terrible health implications for consumers of meat, there is also the double jeopardy of the workers in these places getting infectious diseases from these animals in addition to developing muscle, bone and joint diseases from the stooping and squatting postures imposed by the design of their jobs .The conditions in most of the factories  in Nigeria are similar, as more than 80% of the tasks are floor based. The conditions are different in the developed areas of the world ,where things are done properly , and policy makers place the health and safety of workers in the priority list in the design of  equipment, offices, factories , Schools, and Hospitals. In these places, floor based activities are kept to the minimum, and nearly all the tasks are ceiling based.  Body parts of animals are hygienically wrapped in cellophane and hung.  Lawn mowers have replaced machetes, and ceiling based lifters and robots are every where in factories and offices.

It is interesting to note that for over twenty years, Japanese have been working on robots with emphasis on human factor engineering. They took off from their understanding of human anatomy , and with the knowledge that certain parts of the body are bioengineered to behave like machines of the first, second and third order. As a result, hotels in Japan now have robots that help ferry bags and suit cases from reception to rooms, there are computers which make other computers. The typical Japanese man is not likely to die sorrowing on osteoarthritis .

With regards to ergonomics, occupation in Nigeria can be  arranged into  three broad categories as here under:

Primary seated occupation: Civil servants, Bankers, Computer operators and Tailors are the main professionals in this group.  School teachers and Lecturers spend long hours preparing notes .They also sit for long periods going  through hundreds of answer booklets.

It  was  noted in the first part of this discussion that one very unfortunate issue arising with the colonial masters is that we were forced into colonialism with machetes and hoes and by the time we got out of it , the same tools remained the only ones we had, and have since had to hold on to . Deliberately , it was the policy of the colonial masters to ensure we had no access to labour saving equipment and the technology behind mechanised farming . And so things like Milking machines ,Harvesters, Incubators, Milling machines, Cyanide extraction and other chemical plants were considered too sophisticated for us .

In nearly all  sectors of the Nigerian economy except to some extent oil, this policy was strictly implemented and  indeed remains extant.  While the Cassava  plant(Manihot esculentia), and  it’s bio product  was a staple food for the Majority of the Nigerian population, no efforts  were made  to automate the various processes developed by the indigenous people to remove chemical poisons that comes with it.

To this day and over half a century following  the deliberate underdevelopment of Nigeria and Nigerians by Europeans, design requirements of working tools do not meet any ergonomic principles. As a result, Teachers, including Lecturers in institutions of higher learning, Medical Doctors, Physicians , Surgeons including Dentists, Nurses, Market women, Factory workers, Farmers Mason tenders and many others are suffering different categories of  crippling pain in different parts of the body as a result of their working environment and working tools. For most of the farmers, what they have  come to know as their illness can simply be classified as a form of osteoarthritis and  for all that they care about ,there are powerful painkillers all over the place . Again,  it might not be totally wrong  to  think it is why in the midst of arable land, and many rivers, Nigerians are hungry and thirsty

For pain involving the spine or vertebral column, a sizable number of patients including Medical Doctors  have had to travel overseas for treatment because the facilities to handle medical problems involving such delicate parts of the body as the vertebral column have only just begun to emerge, and then in centres where they are available, the support systems will require some time to reach maturity. Unfortunately, such interventions are available only to people who have money and not for the poor. Besides, follow up has been a major challenge , because it is  the decision of the Specialists, trained specifically in such areas  to not attend to patients who  require additional intervention after going out for treatment, because in their opinion, doing so  will place them in a completely different professional province.  Many such patients are dying in their homes without many people knowing.

We have not helped ourselves since we became independent, demonstrating beyond doubt that we have not the capacity to manage our affairs.  Limited thinking , greed and other individual issues probably bothering on reverse sociology  particularly among those that have been privileged to lead us have made it difficult to make life, working and living less painful for  the great majority of Nigerians who work and die daily with avoidable painful conditions.   Currently and in many establishments and factories, workers are introduced to machines instead of the other way round.  In many places, there is little or no pre employment /preplacement screening ,and people have no choice  to make, when  paid jobs are indeed very scarce to find. The result is that  workers are  not expected to complain. They do not have the capacity to negotiate for  better work  place and working conditions ,and when serious incapacitating conditions  develop ,  they get little or no compensation.

In schools, universities, offices, Banks and other places where people sit and work long hours without break, the working equipment , chairs and desks are designed with  no consideration for the users . Many schools and Universities have Chairs without head,  back  and arm rests. The chairs are generally of uniform size and Students are expected to squeeze themselves into these constructions which  often have desks built in  to satisfy the requirements of the Contractor and maximize the discomfort of the user. With  arrangements such as these,  attention deficit from many factors including joint pains , fatigue and exhaustion from frequent shifting, to find positions of least discomfort is unavoidable. If you think , it is one out of the twenty or so reasons why  pupils and students in those  institutions of learning owned by Governments other than Corporate  organizations and Wealthy individuals do not seem to do well , you might be right.

For much of a single day outside weekends, school children sit in these poorly designed chairs , going on from the regular  scheduled classroom work to lessons. Considering that bone formation and shaping continues in life up to the age of 30 years, it is not difficult to understand why by using ill fitting chairs, the foundation is laid for the emergence of musculoskeletal disorders manifesting in different forms of arthritis later in life.

The prevalence of work related musculoskeletal disorders is on the increase.  The problem has always been that of underreporting, and which makes it difficult to rely on available data. For the Civil Servant, Banker, University Lecturer, Dental surgeon, sitting or standing for long hours can cause degenerative conditions of the spine to develop early and reduce harm the quality of life as you grow older, but more importantly, using a chair designed with not enough space to occupy the buttocks, no provision for arm ,neck ,head and  back while sitting and working for long hours can kill even the most healthy looking man .

Though the science of robotic engineering has produced machines that can do many things previously unimaginable, such machines still need to be operated by man.  The component parts  of the human body have dimensions that have been sufficiently studied, quantified and found to obey the basic principles of motion, and operate according to known laws in biomechanics(laws of physics as expounded by Newton applied to biology).

Measurements taken of different parts of the body, or work done by parts of the body including, weight, height, size of head, size of jaw, the ratio of head size to jaw size (specified), arm length, sitting height, Grip strength, step length have all been found to exhibit  similarities and differences with regards to age, race, sex, gender, occupation and ethnic group, and to some extent, life style.

For  man to work ,live a healthy live and age gracefully with minimal requirements for pain medicines, he must know and understand him self. But he should be provided with home and working environment favourable enough to reduce to the minimum, the probability of  acquiring work  related injuries. This is not possible when design requirements of the working environment are meant only for the  executive  officers , while largely ignoring the others.  It is also not possible  to avoid  significant  health issues where  Samoans known to be  heavily built and tall( some male Samoans have 12 ribs) ,are forced to use  factory equipment manufactured according to the height, weight and arm length of  Chinese men .

The human body is built and designed by the creator around a skeleton that is both rigid and flexible. To sustain these two properties and yet maintain mechanical stability, bone modelling and remodelling takes place in the small and large joints of the body ;a process that continues until an individual attains the age classified by  a Physician, Wash as old old.

The  large joints of the body are areas where these processes go on and where activities of daily living appear to be as constructive as they are destructive. Physical activities are amongst  individual factors that can modify these processes in any direction depending on many other factors including those which concern ergonomic principles.

Irrespective of age, any man or woman  of the low income class working all day long, sitting in an ill fitting chair with little or no break periods can slump and die as may his boss sitting in a well crafted chair with provisions made for different parts of the body. Any differences will probably appear in the procedures employed in generating the differentials with regards to the  remote and immediate cause(s)of death.