Chronic Injuries Could Happen At Work

Experts have assessed workstations here in Singapore as largely not ergonomic, while work-strain injury cases continue to rise. Ergonomics is the designing of jobs, equipment, and workplace to fit the individual worker.   

Bad posture, glaring computer screens, and poor lighting could contribute to more cases of work-related injuries or repetitive stress injuries (RSI). Although there are no concrete statistics of work-strain injuries here, the figures for the US serve as a good indicator. RSIs acount for 34% of all lost workdays in the US and cost companies US$15billion to 20billion each year in compensation costs for workers.   

As Singapore advances into the IT era, companies may be faced with huge productivity losses and worker’s medical bills due to RSIs, in addition to productivity slowdowns as the workforce ages. These two factors could be an impending threat to Singapore’s labor force, especially since 250,000workers – a tenth of the employed – are expected to be IT-savvy by 2010. 

“The strains do not come about simply because a task is repeated over and over again,” says Mr Patrick Ker, a senior occupational therapist at the Occupational Therapy Department (OTD) at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). “Rather, it is the repetition combined with force and awkward posture. When you have all these factors together, the risk increases,” he explains.  

The top three injuries attributable to poor ergonomics are carpal tunnel syndrome (compression of a nerve at the wrist resulting in numbness of the fingers), De Quervains tendinitis (inflammation of the extensor tendons of the thumb, resulting in pain in the side of the wrist right beneath the thumb) and trigger finger (tenderness at the palmar crease). 

There seems to be little awareness of RSI in Singapore, also known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs), which affects 650,000 US workers every year. Many institutions are reluctant to install expensive ergonomic workspaces. However this is being shortsighted, says Mr Ker, as prevention of RSIs will help to save costs in the long run.