Thursday, July 16, 2015
Duh, huh
"Science" news:
Recent research has warned of the health detriments associated with sitting for long stretches of time at the office, but what about the nearly half of all employees worldwide who are required to stand for more than 75% of their workdays? Prolonged standing is associated with short-term adverse health issues, including reports of fatigue, leg cramps, and backaches, which can affect job performance and cause significant discomfort. A new study published in Human Factors suggests that, over time, this type of sustained muscle fatigue can result in serious health consequences.Duh.
“Long-term muscle fatigue caused by standing for long periods of time has not received much attention.”Huh? Standing has received a LOT of attention by employers and by agencies like OSHA. For 200 years, decent employers have tried to ease the pains and discomforts of standing. If it's short on "scientific" attention, that's only because it was so obviously painful and troublesome. When you stand all day, you are unquestionably and consciously tired. Your feet hurt and your back hurts. When you sit all day (at least with enough breaks), you aren't physically tired. Therefore it was important for medical researchers to locate the long-term problems of sitting. And therefore it's silly and wasteful to examine the problems of standing. Medical researchers have already done it thousands of times. Lancet, 1882, just one example. ¶ 4:56 PM
