Roger J Kahler | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

Ergonomic design interventions--a case study involving portable ladders.

Portable ladders are one of the most ancient tools conceived by man. They remain ubiquitous and indispensable even today. It is interesting to note that there is little difference between the makeshift portable ladders used throughout history and some still used today. The design of portable ladders seems to have simply evolved, rather than been subject to formal design process, including ergonomic criteria. An analysis of 277 fatalities associated with ladders was conducted to describe the pattern of ladder fatalities and identify and assess ergonomic design controls. All ladder fatalities analysed were found to contain multiple human, equipment (ladder) and environmental causative factors. It is hypothesized that significant gains with regard to reducing future fatalities can be achieved by applying ergonomic design principles to ladders to accommodate predictable and undesirable human behaviour. Without effective future change, the only prediction that can be made is that the pattern of ladder fatalities will simply continue.

Accidental Falls↗

PubMed2002

Predicting injurious events.

This paper has attempted to quantify the size and the nature of the industrial personal damage problem, in terms of not only classifying that damage but also showing the predominant damaging energy types. We have shown the majority of the cost of work-related personal damage (in Australia) is from non-fatal permanent disability. It is not possible to make this statement as clearly for the United States. We can find no clear identification of the permanently disabled group for U.S. industry within the national dataset. This could indicate it is being camouflaged, as it was in Australia until definitive work was completed in the early 1990s. The enormous value of the knowledge of the workforce has been expounded. The collection and recording of such knowledge requires a very structured approach using a set of focusing questions that are established against a backdrop of what is known to damage people permanently. In particular, the questions must contain reference to human energy (heavy lifting/pushing/pulling tasks), gravitational energy (falls of people, objects), and machine energy (vehicle/vehicle, vehicle/pedestrian, vehicle/environment). Having harvested the store of knowledge of a workforce, it is necessary to have appropriate goals and expectations in responsibly handling the information you have obtained.

Accidents, Occupational↗