Telephone handsets are a health hazard
Interest in office ergonomics has radically increased mainly due to rising costs associated with ergonomic injuries among office workers known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD).
Hundreds of thousands of people who regularly use a phone are likely to suffer from neck and back pain as well as headaches. The use of telephones in the office environment constitutes a measurable health risk for anyone using the phone for as little as two hours a day.
Two recent independent field studies show that the frequent problem of neck and back pain experienced by office workers can be significantly reduced and even eradicated by replacing telephone handsets with headsets.
In today’s workplace telephones are indispensable, since telecommunication is a crucial and growing part of office work. However, using a traditional telephone handset often involves strenuous movement and unnatural postures such as cradling the handset between neck and shoulder, and having to stretch to reach for things. Awkward or constrained postures caused by holding a handset increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders and reduces work performance over an extended period of time. The injuries caused by bad telephone habits cannot be seen and take time to manifest. Once uncovered it is often too late to overturn the consequences.
The most common bad postures and associated health hazard are:
- Holding the telephone between shoulder and head increases the risk of nerve compression in the neck and shoulder area.
- Leaning forward to retrieve a handset , to answer a call, puts greater pressure on the spine and cause discomfort that can lead to a cumulative disorder. On average, an office worker execute this movement ten times a day which increases the risk of potential injuries.
- Sitting in the same position for an extended period of time and doing repetitive movements can wreak havoc on the back, neck, legs, and almost any other body part. It is recommended that workers stand, stretch and walk around every 15 minutes to facilitate and regulate the blood circulation.
- Holding a handset against your ear can cause tense muscles and tendons in your fingers, arms and elbows as the forearm and hand are in an upward position reducing blood flow and causing numbness and more serious consequences if repeatedly occurring. Your ear may also become sore from pressing the phone against it.
Such negative patterns are not easily broken without some kind of physical intervention, where replacing the telephone handset with a headset provides the most obvious and effective improvement that can be obtained.
If your work involves any of the threats identified above, the proactive use of a "hands free" headset can avoid straining your neck and shoulder muscles and allow doing several tasks simultaneously. Converting from a traditional hand-held phone to a hands-free headset brings back the natural curvature of the neck; the difference in comfort level will be realized immediately.
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Better posture reduces the risk of musculoskeletal disorder
Safe multi-tasking prevents hazardous movements
Standing, stretching and walking around stimulates blood circulation
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