Environment

The ancient Greeks referred to ergo as the study of work. However, the word ergonomic was first used by Wojciech Jastrzebowski in 1857 and became prominent during World War 11, with the development of complex machinery and weaponry. In this epoch, U.S lieutenant Alplonse proposed that human error, in air traffic accident could be reduced by changing control panel design, to make it simpler. Ergonomics therefore, is the "physical and behavioural interaction between people and their environment with the goal of mitigating physical and mental stresses". (Hagan, Montgomery and O'Riley)

Musculoskeletal disorder is an example of a stressor, mentioned in the preceding paragraph with the tendency to critically hurt an economy. This is evident by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report of the United States, whose figures for musculoskeletal expenses soar to approximately $45 to $54 billion per annum. (Raflo, 2001)...This essay as a result, attempts to compare and contrast three Ergonomic tools that can best assess the risk of musculoskeletal disorders.

These tools are the, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) and NIOSH Lifting Equation. They were selected because they are three of six "most commonly used assessment tool" (Brodie 2008) in musculoskeletal assessment, in addition they were used extensively and are the preferred choice of Joint Health and Safety Committees. (Pascual and Naqui 2008) Developed by Dr Lynn McAtamney and Professor Nigel Corlett (1993) the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) is an observational tool, which is used to quickly and easily examine the musculoskeletal dysfunctions of workers who stand or remains in a sedentary position.

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