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Office, Corridors and Emergency Egress

In order to provide a safe and orderly environment for all of the University community and to meet the requirements of the Maryland State Fire Prevention Code, EHS conducts annual inspections of all occupied University facilities. These walk-throughs are used to identify potential areas of concern relating to fire and general safety. It is the goal of EHS to provide and maintain safe work areas and means of egress. The survey looks for the following items:

• exit doors unobstructed
• no storage in corridors and exits
• stairs not blocked
• fire extinguishers and fire alarm pull stations accessible
• stairways and corridors adequately lighted
• tripping hazards
• blockage of fire extinguishing equipment
• overloading of electrical duplex outlets
• use of electrical extension cords

Once deficiencies are noted, EHS works with the department head or custodian of the area towards remediation.

Office Ergonomics

Our campus, like any other large organization, requires an ergonomics program. This program responds to requests for analysis and evaluation of the workplace design, accident investigation, preventive measures and training.

Ergonomics is the study of the design of requirements of work in relation to the physical and psychological capabilities and limitations of people: that is, ergonomics seeks to fit the job to the person rather than the person to the job. The aim of the discipline is to prevent the development of occupational disorders and to reduce the potential for fatigue, error, or unsafe acts through the evaluation and design of facilities, environments, jobs, tasks, tools, equipment, processes, and training methods to match the capabilities of specific workers. It is also known as human factors engineering.

Although there is no current OSHA standard for ergonomics, California has come out with their own ergonomics regulation adopted November 14, 1996 by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board. Also the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is working on a comprehensive ergonomics standard which is due for review any day now. With a new director, OSHA should again bring up the ergonomics standard sometime in 1998. With the number of work place injuries rising with ergonomic related causes, increased attention needs to be paid to developing methods to identify causes, adapt the process to the person, and then monitor.

Some Ergonomics Web sites are:

• The University of Virginia/EHS Ergonomics Home Page at www.virginia.edu/~enhealth/ERGONOMICS
• The San Jose State University Typing Injury FAQ Home Page at www-engr.sjsu.edu/~svei/tifaq/
• The Library of Congress Workplace Ergonomics Program at marvel.loc.gov:70/00/employee/health/ergonomics/program3
• The Cornell University Human Factors Homepage at ergo.human.cornell.edu
• The University of Nebraska, Lincoln repetitive strain injuries page at www.engr.unl.edu/ee/eeshop/rsi.html
• The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has publications and fax information sheets at www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is in the process of an ergonomics standard. Check for updates at www.osha.gov
• The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has a standard for visual display terminal workstations at www.ansi.org
• OSHA Link for Ergonomics

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Comments and questions about this page can be directed to Wayne Shelton.

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