Affiliations: Health & Safety Department, Ontario Hydro Nuclear,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1X6. | Institute for Occupational Ergonomics, University of
Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
Note: [] Corresponding author: M. Aileen Sullivan, Health & Safety
Department, Ontario Hydro Nuclear, 700 University Avenue, H17A23, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada M5G 1X6. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The pressure from recent and imminent Health and Safety legislation,
both in Western Europe and Canada, has increased the awareness of the important
contributions of ergonomics. At the same time it has become clear that
ergonomists will never be plentiful enough to attack all workplace problems. In
today's world economy, often, many companies lack the resources to employ an
ergonomist. This creates a need for the transfer of ergonomics to
non-ergonomists so that they can address their own workplace problems
themselves. To transfer this skill in an effective and safe way requires a
methodology which will incorporate a knowledge base, techniques for identifying
mismatches between the people and their work, and ways to assist the users to
interpret the results of the analyses and implement the necessary changes. Some
useful ergonomics techniques are presented to assist people in assessing their
own workplaces. They include techniques which measure work demands and their
causes, equipment and environment analysis procedures and techniques that
assess the potential for musculo-skeletal injuries.
