The Safety Catalyst: Expanding Beyond Your Sphere

Some good practical tips for creating a safe work environment ...

"For your consideration, here are three to-dos I see outside the current safety profession sphere today.

1. Incorporate creative ways to reach those groups with potentially significant day-to-day safety impact, whether they are titled supervisors, process leaders, foremen, coaches or team leaders.

2. Tap the inner world of mental processes that can either propel or block improved safety performance.

3. Become a proponent of "Health with a capital H, not a small h," says Paul Manzi, CSP, worldwide fleet safety advisor for BP Shipping Ltd."   continued ...   (Via Occupational Hazards)

Why backseat drivers are less trouble than a mobile phone

Back seat driver = 1, cell phone = 0 ...

"Scientists have revealed why driving and talking on a mobile phone is more distracting than carrying out a conversation with a passenger.

They found that as the car moves, the mobile phone switches continually between base stations - causing a loss of sound quality with interruptions, making the motorist's brain work harder to hear the other person. This leaves fewer auditory resources to allocate to events outside the car.

Dr Takashi Hamada, of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tokyo, measured the sound quality of phone calls in parked cars and in cars travelling at 65kph (40mph)."   continued ...   (Via Scotsman)

Can Cell Phones Damage Our Eyes?

Ouch, visual impairment from cell phone use might further diminish driving performance ...

"I'm sure you've read dozens of stories about how our cell phones could be dangerous to our health, causing brain tumors for example. But so far, there is not a definitive answer. But now, according to IsraCast, a team of Israeli researchers has discovered that the microwave radiation used by our cell phones could destroy our eyes by causing two kinds of damages to our visual system, including an irreversible one. If the researchers are right, and even if you only occasionally use your cell phone, the lenses in your eyes can suffer from microscopic damages that won't heal themselves over time. Now, let's wait until another scientific team says it's not true...

Here is the introduction of the IsraCast article.

In a recent scientific study conducted by a team of researchers from the Technion, a possible link between microwave radiation, similar to the type found in cellular phones, and different kinds of damage to the visual system was found. At least one kind of damage seems to accumulate over time and not heal, challenging the common view and leading the researchers to the assertion that the duration of exposure is not less important than the intensity of the irradiation. The researchers also emphasized that existing exposure guidelines for microwave radiation might have to change."   continued ...   (Via Technology Trends)

Driven to distraction by technology

A good way to increase your efficiency and stay sane ...

"The typical office worker is interrupted every three minutes by a phone call, e-mail, instant message or other distraction. The problem is that it takes about eight uninterrupted minutes for our brains to get into a really creative state.

There is a mini rebellion under way, however. Desperate for some quiet time to think, people are coming up with low-tech strategies to get away from all their technology. That has Microsoft and others taking note and looking for ways to create software that can be more adept at preventing interruptions.

"If you don't have that sort of free time to dream and muse and mull, then you are not being creative, by definition," said Dan Russell, a senior manager at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif."   continued ...   (Via CNET News)

Dolphin launches the world's first access software on a portable Pen

Nice assist blind and visually impaired computer users ...

"Announced back in March, Dolphin Computer Access is now offering versions of it's assistive technology software that run from a USB pen drive.

Using the Dolphin Pen, it is possible for blind and low vision computer users around the world, to walk up to any computer and find their access program running automatically, and configured just the way they like it! From 11 th May 2005, Dolphin's Supernova, Hal, Lunar and LunarPlus will be available to order in the new Dolphin Pen Edition, as well as the standard PC Edition.

Unlike all other screen access products, the Dolphin Pen runs from a USB Pen Drive ? a small portable device that measures just 6cm long and 2cm wide, which plugs straight into the USB slot of a computer. This allows a user to carry their software with them to any "Dolphin Pen Friendly" PC and run Supernova, Hal, Lunar or LunarPlus instantly, as if it were on their own system. The Dolphin Pen automatically saves a user's own preferred settings, so that every time the Pen is used there is no need to reconfigure the settings. Just plug it in and go! When the Pen is removed all of the user settings are automatically saved back to the Pen."   continued ...   (Via Accessify)

Problems with Traditional Computer Keyboards

Good article for understanding what is being accomplished with ergonomic keyboards ...

"Many people think ergonomic keyboards are only for people who have trouble with RSI, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, or other ailments of the hands and wrists. The truth is, we should all be using them because the traditional keyboard wasn't put together with human comfort in mind. It causes three main problems with positioning of the hands, according to Suparna Damany & Jack Bellis in their excellent book on RSI (link below). These problems are:

Ulnar Deviation: This is the way we cant our wrists from the normal straight position in order to get our fingers to line up correctly on home row. "The problem is so pronounced for some RSI patients that they have their wrists permanently locked in this ulnar deviated position" (p. 198).
Pronation: This is when you twist your forearm "as you bend the thumbs down to flatten your hands" (I can especially see feel this when I take my hands off the keyboard and pantomine the motion for hitting the space bar).
Dorsiflexion: This is when you bend your hand up at the wrist, which traditional keyboards encourage you to do, especially if you drop your wrist onto the rest to type. (I used to wonder why more typists seem to get RSI than professional pianists, and I think this is part of it, or rather something they don't do, because they're forced to hold their arms out which not only engages more--bigger--muscles to do the work but allows their hands to work in a more natural position)."   continued ...   (Via Ergoblog)