Your office might be a pleasant place to work where the coffee is plentiful and you occasionally spot colorful birds through the window. Idyllically, it seems like the perfect and healthiest place to work as there are no obvious health hazards that are common with factories and construction sites. But the fact is that offices aren’t without hazards.
There are many significant problems that arise due to sitting at a desk for the most part of the day. Hence, there are several health hazards that a health-conscious worker should be aware of. If you want to complete your 9-5 job with your mind and body intact, here are a few office health issues to be aware of.
Falls
You probably wouldn’t think that falls would be a serious risk for office workers. However, office workers are actually between 2 and 2.5 times more likely to be injured in a fall than non-office workers.
There are a number of reasons that falls are health risks for office workers, including reaching for things in unstable chairs, poor lighting and slippery floors. You need to be wary of all of these risks while working in an office setting.
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CTS or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
If you thought this condition only impacts the heavyset women working inside cubicles, you’re wrong as it has become a commonplace issue among every modern office worker. This problem affects up to 0.3% of the population in any given year and office workers are the most affected.
Medical professionals describe this as pressure on the median nerve. A median nerve is a nerve in the wrist that is responsible for supplying movement and feeling to different parts of the hand. This leads to tingling, numbness, muscle damage, and weakness in the hand.
Practice stretching and other hand exercises in regular intervals to release tension in the wrist.
Eye strain
If your job demands you to look at spreadsheets for several hours, you must have felt burning holes in your eyes. Programmers and coders who have to go through thousands of lines of code must have felt the melty eye phenomenon. Staring at a computer screen for a very long period of time can give you over-sensitive eyes, blurry vision, too-watery or too-dry eyes, and even a sore neck.
Increase your font size so that you don’t have to squint and give frequent rest to your eyes by looking away from the computer screen.
Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is no longer a condition faced by seniors as it has become an increasing problem for office workers, irrespective of their age. Experts feel that this occurs due to the sedentary positions that continue for several hours during the day. On top of that, if you add your bad posture, this can lead to a devastating impact on your body over time.
Apart from getting better with your posture, you should get regular exercise even while setting at your desk. Also, include abdominal strengthening activities to relieve the pressure on your lower back.
Noise Stress
Loud printers, ringing phones, annoying colleagues shouting and talking, and several other types of office noises can be health risks. Experts are of the opinion that office noise can lead to increased levels of stress and lower motivation at work. On the contrary, low-level noise can lead to workers being able to focus more on their tasks and concentrate more.
You can work inside quiet, enclosed rooms to alleviate the impact of low-level office noise.
In case you sustain any kind of health issue or injury while you are at work, you can get in touch with workers’ compensation lawyers who can guide you on the dos and don’ts of filing a case.