The "Chairless Chair" - A Different Kind of Exoskeleton

Typically, when the term exoskeleton is used in regards to human performance it brings to mind the exoskeletons, such as Lockheed Martin's HULC that have been developed for soldiers to help carry loads up to 200 pounds over longer distances with less fatigue, similar to this unit.

These units have even been the inspiration for exoskeletons for people with spinal cord injuries, such as the Ekso which has been designed to help people with spinal cord injuries to stand and walk. Ekso units are being tested at locations such as the Kessler Foundation and various rehabilitation facilities around the country.

But Noonee, a Swiss robotics startup, has rethought the concept of exoskeletons with their new exoskeleton for their assembly line workers. Instead of an exoskeleton that is designed to help lift loads, carry greater loads over distances, or take the place of muscles that can no longer provide the necessary strength for standing and walking, they have designed an exoskeleton to help employees sit. It's an interesting proposition as the thought is that by taking off the load associated with standing, workers will experience less fatigue over the course of a work day leading to greater productivity and less days lost from work due to injury or fatigue. Initially, the units will be tested at factories owned by BMW and Audi in Europe. It should be interesting to see how this affects both productivity and injury rates over time.

No Brainer - $75 chainsaw chaps versus $200 to $3000 for stitches

While on vacation in Maine, I went to the lumberjack show in Trenton with my wife and kids. At this point, you are probably asking what does a lumberjack show have to do with ergonomics and safety. Well, a lot. As Timber Tina directed the lumberjacks through the show, she explained the equipment that the lumberjacks use for competition as well as what actual everyday lumberjacks and tree guys use to do their job. A lot of interesting information about all sorts of cool equipment was presented with the requisite "oohs and ahhs" from the guys in the crowd.

But in all of the this, the thing that really stuck with me was as the lumberjacks were getting ready to do the hot chainsaw event, they put on a pair of orange chaps before starting their saws. The chaps were simple and quickly went on (a buckle at the waist and one behind each knee). I was amazed because in all of my years of landscaping, we routinely used the chainsaws in shorts and boots - and in all of the times that we have been out with public works, I've never seen any of the public works guys put on a pair of chaps before starting up the chainsaws. It's such a quick task that can prevent a lot of issues and they don't cost much. When I came back from vacation and was speaking with my co-workers, I saw on google that the chaps run between $75 and $150 dollars. Pretty inexpensive, especially when they can be used for more than one employee. And even cheaper when you compare it to the cost of the visit to the ER to stitch up a laceration, which can run between $200 and $3,000 not counting the cost of antibiotics and tetanus shots. It prevents things like what happened in the following photo to a friend of mine.

About 30 seconds worth of time to put on $75 chainsaw chaps could have prevented this injury.

Beer safety

Surprisingly, beer and safety have a lot in common.

A friend of mine, Chris LaPierre who is a brewmaster at Iron Hill Brewery, shared this post from Solemn Oath Brewer's blog that talks about both safety and the dangers inherent in brewing beer. It's both humorous (sometimes, going for the funny is the best way to make sure people pay attention) and serious at the same time. As in most manufacturing industries, there are many dangers present due to the chemicals and compounds used as well as the dangers associated with powered equipment and equipment that contains compounds under pressure.

I think that the following paragraph from the blog applies to not just to breweries but to all industries.

"While breweries are businesses that have to turn a profit, there’s absolutely no justification for the loss of life or limb to save a few bucks, grow faster, make your job easier, or even to make better beer. Making great beer will keep the customers coming back, keep the lights on, and pay the employees, but a single accident could cost all of that–and much more. Because the costs are so high, it is a brewery’s first obligation to protect its employees, contractors, and customers from physical harm. Large breweries have had fully staffed and compliant safety programs in place for years, while small start-ups often don’t have the time or resources to spare to make their operations as safe as they could be."

The size of your company or how long you have been in business is not an excuse to skip basic safety operations and making sure that you do the things necessary to make sure that you stay safe.

If you have a manufacturing area or an area that handles hazardous materials, do all of your employees understand the following:

• What hazardous materials may be located within your building
• Where are these materials located
• Equipment that may be hazardous if operated outside of recommended operating values
• Location of shutoff switches for gas, electric, etc.
• Emergency exit plans from all locations in your building
• Do the office staff understand safe walking areas in manufacturing or shipping areas in your facility

The other point that I like at the end of the blog is something that all job seekers should keep in mind if interviewing for positions at manufacturing facilities - ask what safety precautions are in place. If you don't get a solid answer, you might want to rethink working there.

Just a quick note, when you click the link to Solemn Oath's blog, you will be asked to click yes to being 21 in order to read the blog. It is only used to allow you to access the page.

We're Back and Ladder Safety

Time to dust off this blog after our Post-Sandy downtime and get started back up again with providing helpful information.

It seems that for a good chunk of this winter, we were seeing examinee's for Functional Capacity Evaluations due to the ever present constant of gravity in conjuction with ladders, trees, and being up on the roof. We can't change gravity's constant, but we can try to be smarter about how we use our ladders when we are performing work when off of the ground.

When we do safety and body mechanics lectures, we try to include photos of people doing a task wrong - sadly, most people laugh and accuse us of using staged photos or they wonder if the photo has been photoshopped. This is because everyone always thinks that there is no way someone would do something that stupid. But they are always true - and the acts are typically performed by those who know better. Like the firefighters in the video below:

This video has a bunch of things wrong, but one of the things that is just as striking as the lack of common sense and the close call with significant injury from the saw is that nobody stopped them from doing this. Keep in mind that we are not only responsible for the safety of ourselves but also our co-workers - if you see something, say something!!!

Advanced Pull-ups for Firefighters

In our last post, Jamie demonstrated some basic pull-up techniques to get you started with doing pull-ups. This video goes into some advanced pull-up techniques for those of you that have the basics cold.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to drop us an e-mail at info@biokineticsllc.com or give us a call at (732) 741-5085.

Pull-up Progression 1 for Firefighters and Police

This installment of our video instruction series focuses on basic pull-ups. Pull-ups are a great exercise and as Jamie states in the video, "If you can't find a place to do pull-ups, you aren't looking". Doorways, railings, playgrounds, attachments on fire trucks, etc. The possibilities are endless. This video has a little more background noise than our other videos, but it reinforces the point that places to do pull-ups can be done anywhere - these are done in the corner of a small park.

In the next post, Jamie demonstrates some advanced pull-up techniques for those of you that have the basic pull-up mastered.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to drop us an e-mail at info@biokineticsllc.com or give us a call at (732)741-5085.

The 20-20-20 Rule

I've heard about this rule elsewhere over the years, but came across it again while doing some research for a current ergonomics project that we are doing. Often the 20-20-20 rule is applied to office ergonomics for computer users, and suggests that every 20 minutes, you should look at a point 20 feet away for 20 seconds to give your eyes a break from the focus on the computer monitor.

However, this rule comes in handy for many different occupations, such as cake decorators (this project has a little bit of a sweet tooth to it!) and people who assemble parts. As I've come to learn, cake decorating is a very detail oriented task (which luckily, I had an idea of thanks to watching all of those episodes of Ace of Cakes on the Food Network.) Cake decorators in larger commercial bakeries spend significant amounts of time on detail work, which can be related to neck strain as well as upper extremity complaints (hand, wrist, forearm, and shoulder). Taking advantage of the 20-20-20 rule provides cake decorators a chance to look up and look away from the cake, giving time to stretch their neck and shoulder girdle musculature as well as relax and stretch out their arms to relieve the muscle tension related to detailed work on the cakes.

For cake decorators and parts assemblers, using a simple timer or stop watch set to go off at 20 minute intervals can provide an easy reminder to stop and take a break. For those of us who are chair bound dealing with a keyboard and computer monitor, there are some freeware choices that allow us to remember to take a break such as EyeDefender and Workrave.

If you are interested in more information about how and why your employees should put the 20-20-20 rule into practice or you have other ergonomic questions, drop me an e-mail at quin@biokineticsllc.com or give us a call at (732) 741-5085.