Ergonomics Standards

Ergonomic standards in the workplace promote worker productivity, safety and health. The standards outline practices for improving accessibility, and visibility. They provide standardized procedures and practices for measuring and reducing physical stress and mental fatigue from motion, vibration, shock, sounds. Representative standards for ergonomics are shown below. Several hundred ergonomic standards may be found by keyword or document number search. The main categories for ergonomic standards cover a wide range of specialties:

• Hand Held Tool Ergonomics
• Office Ergonomics
• Vehicle Ergonomics
• Thermal Ergonomics
• Machine Ergonomics
• Human System Interaction Ergonomics
• Control Centres Ergonomics
• Accessibility Ergonomics
• Software Ergonomics
• General Ergonomics

Hand held tool ergonomic standards in this selection of standards pertain to the measurement and test methods for vibration and shock from hand held tools. They cover drills, impact wrenches, grinders, and forestry equipment such as chainsaws, brush cutters and other groups of handheld tools. Transmission of vibration, the size, weight, presence or absence of handles and their position all factor into elements of the design, selection and use of hand tools.

Standards for office ergonomics, the design of workspaces, and the work environment help employers and employees maintain productivity and safe working conditions. Office ergonomics standards provide guidance to designers of office space, workstations and office equipment. Facility managers and safety officers are also concerned with these standards as back, neck and spinal injuries and repetitive stress injuries impact performance and attendance. The standards cover visual displays and computer keyboards, office chairs and desks as well as office environmental factors such as lighting, noise, ventilation and temperature that affect significant numbers of people.

Vehicle ergonomics standards govern auditory, tactile and visual communications between the vehicle and the driver, they relate to the thermal conditions in the driver's compartment, and they provide test procedures for evaluating these factors on the performance and comfort of the driver. Included here are a selection of ISO international standards, Austrian standards and British Standards. Additional related standards may be found using keyword or document search.

Thermal ergonomics standards are relevant where heat or cold are factors in the environment and are important in sports, fire fighting, construction, surgery and other occupations. Thermal ergonomic standards are important to protective clothing manufacturers and workers in extreme environments. Thermal ergonomic standards promote safety, productivity, health and well-being. ISO TC 159 is a technical committee involved in standardization in the field of ergonomics. ISO TC 159 SC5 is a subcommittee working on ergonomics of the physical environment. Within this category are thermal ergonomics standards for measurement of physical quantities, analysis and interpretation of thermal stress on workers, methods for the assessment of human responses to hot and cold as well as other standards.

Machine ergonomics standards are critical for preventing serious injury from crushing, cutting and thermal exposure. This selection of international standards relates to the placement of actuators, the size of access openings for service, whole body entry to machinery, user interaction with displays and controls. They offer a uniform approach to ergonomic considerations for machine tools within the workplace and assist in design, installation and use of manufacturing systems, including individual and integrated machine tools and auxiliary components.

Human System Interaction Ergonomics Standards provide design principles and a framework for applying those principles to analysis, design and evaluation of human computer interface systems. This selection of standards for human system interaction ergonomics applies to the following types of users: user interface designers, developers, evaluators and buyers.

Control centres ergonomics standards describe ergonomic principles, recommendations and requirements to be applied in the design of control centres, as well as in the expansion, refurbishment and technological upgrades of control centres. It covers all types of control centres. These standards would find application in process industries, transportation and logistic control systems and people deployment services. Standards in this group cover ergonomic design principles for the various arrangements of rooms and spaces in a control suite. They cover layout and design of workstations and environmental aspects of ergonomic design: thermal environment (temperate regions); air quality; lighting environment; acoustic environment; vibration; aesthetics and interior design.

Accessible design ergonomics standards define test methods and design considerations for auditory, tactile and visual signals on consumer products. Austrian standards and British standards are included here along with the ISO versions.

Software ergonomics standards establish design principles for multimedia user interfaces. They address user interfaces for applications that incorporate, integrate and synchronize static media such as text, graphics or images, and dynamic media such as audio, animation, video or media related to other sensory modalities.

General Ergonomics Standards apply in a wide range of situations, providing procedures, practices, and design considerations that assure consumer and worker productivity, safety, and health. Furthermore, they serve as the baseline for the ergonomics standards for environments and industries with more specialized needs.