Ergonomics could relieve workplace problems

People need to take breaks often, stretch and break up repetition of movements.
Marc Resnick, director of Florida International University's Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory, spends his time teaching and studying how to prevent workplace injuries like back pain.
He says poor posture -- along with repetition (how long you sit or stand and do the same thing) and force (how hard you punch those keys) -- is the leading cause of problems. The lab works with companies to come up with solutions like the mops and scrub brushes with extended handles it created for housekeepers at Disney hotels so the workers don't have to bend over as much.
Ergonomics has been a scientific discipline since 1949, but it's only within the past couple of decades that it has shifted into offices. Today, Resnick and his crew redesign work stations by raising or lowering the top of computer screens to an inch above eye level and making sure workers' feet are flat on the floor. They train people to take breaks often and stretch, breaking up the repetition of their movements.
False security
"One of the things making our lives more dangerous from an ergonomics point of view is simply that people think, 'Well, I'm only e-mailing one to two hours a day at a time, so it can't be bad,"' Resnick says. "But when you put it all together, your fingers are doing the same thing."
Companies can spend thousands of dollars on an ergonomically correct chair, footrest and mouse for just one worker. But there are cheaper alternatives: Large towels can be rolled up to use as lower-back supports, a three-ring binder can slide underneath a monitor to raise or tilt it and phone books can be used as footrests.
Recently, Resnick proposed studying back pain in fashion models, but the modeling company he approached rejected the idea.
Fashion trend spotters trace today's leaning look to the current casual, looser fashions. A flowing blouse or skirt looks better when it clings to you in all the right places; a sultry slouch is what makes that silhouette look cool. Unlike the sporty, upright power-suit profiles of Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford in the '80s and '90s, today's fashionistas are all about luxury and lounging.
The slouch seems to say, "I'm so rich and beautiful I don't have to shout about it."
Represents backlash
"It's the anti-Pamela Anderson," says David Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group, a New York consulting firm that analyzes and forecasts trends for retailers and designers. "This represents the backlash of the inflatables. People who get into fashion go the whole way with body language."
Wolfe predicts that fashions -- and postures -- will swing away from sloppy.
"It may take a couple of years," Wolfe says. "Clothes coming in will be simpler, more luxurious. Maybe they'll bring with them a new body language. By then, of course people might be so slumped over they'll be falling out of their chairs."