Ergonomics and Biological Hazards in Occupational Health and Safety

Running Head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY 1
Ergonomics and Biological Hazards
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OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY 2
Ergonomics in the Workplace Layout
Ergonometric approach to workplace safety and health issues has been attributed to
significantly promote safe working employment and curbing lawsuits related to physical injuries.
When design workplaces environments and layout, managers must ensure ergonomics principles
are taken into consideration. The flow of work and movement at a workstation considerably
depends on the structural design of the entire infrastructural and equipment layout.
According to Luetic et al. (2018), the ergonometric design of workplaces promotes the
safety of workers and improves production. Incorporating the ergonomics principles in designing
a workplace layout by taking into account the limitations and capabilities of the worker and
suitability of the environment optimizes the use of space, equipment, and efforts of the worker.
Ergonomics ensures efficient alignment of the workplace and the immediate environment hence
reducing the costs related to occurrences of injury. Poor ergonomics increases employees’
fatigue and frustrations thus inhibiting their performance translating to unoptimized productivity
(Lusetic et al., 2018).
Conversely, Justine (2017) indicates that taking into account ergonomics when designing
a workplace reduces musculoskeletal discomfort and production costs as well as improves work
efficacy, productivity, and human well-being. Justine (2017) implores managers to ensure
ergonomics is taken into consideration at every stage of workplace design as well as in the pre-
and post-occupant inspections of the actual environment.
Biological Hazards at Workplace: Influenza
a. Health issue/concern
Newman-Martin (2012) points out that biohazards are a significant challenge for
Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). Most of the biohazards experienced at workplace