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Frontline for Ergonomics Improvements

Employees can start their own ergo committee

Seth McCurdy pushes a book cart in Perkins Library.

Seth McCurdy took a deep breath as he began pushing a cart filled with books across the multi-colored carpet in Bostock Library.

"The texture of this new carpet makes it more challenging to move the carts," said McCurdy, evening services supervisor in Perkins Library. "That's why we've been trying different things, such as bigger wheels on the carts, to make it easier to push them."

Finding an easier way to push book carts is one of the latest projects for McCurdy and other members of a Library Ergonomics Committee formed a year ago with the assistance of the Occupational & Environmental Safety Office's Ergonomics Division. The library committee provides computer station evaluations and other assistance for about 300 employees in Duke Libraries.

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"We do everything from teaching co-workers how to adjust their chairs to changing the location of a computer to make it easier on the employees and to prevent work-related injuries," said McCurdy, who serves on the committee.

About a dozen similar ergonomics committees have formed in other departments across Duke. The committees are overseen by the Occupational & Environmental Safety Office's Ergonomics Division.

"The goal is to train the peers on the committee so they can serve as our frontline and do the initial assessment," said Tamara James, ergonomics director. "The committees will help raise awareness and help reduce work-related injuries by improving the physical work environment."

Ergonomics can make life easier -- and safer -- for Duke faculty and staff.

"People can wind up with musculoskeletal discomfort in the wrist or back and other health problems from repetitive movements or improper body positioning," James said. "Those are the types of problems we strive to prevent."

The library ergonomics committee and members from the Ergonomics Division conducted tests recently to measure the amount of force required to push a book cart on the new carpet in Bostock Library. They determined it takes about 50 percent more force to push the carts.

"We think we can make it better, though, by getting wheels that are bigger, but not too wide," McCurdy said. The library has modified two book carts and is shopping for suitable replacement wheels to test before rolling them out to the whole fleet.

Some improvements require a simple adjustment, while other ergonomic issues are resolved with a little engineering and construction. For ultra-sonographers in the health system, for instance, an ergonomics committee worked with Duke ergonomists to develop an arm support device, which bears the weight of a forearm during extended scanning procedures.

"It helps to have the committees as our partners," James said. "They give us valuable input and provide a resource for their co-workers."

Contact the Ergonomics office at 286-1722, ext. 271 or e-mail ergonomics@mc.duke.edu.