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New bicycle
News Guide to better workplaces
Fire safety labelling for furniture
Expertise gleaned from more than 20 years of designing safer and more productive work environments has been collected in a practical new source book entitled, Ergonomic design for people at work, Volume 1. The 448-page text, available in hardcover for $45.00 through Lifetime Learning Publications of Belmont, California, integrates the findings of engineers, psychologists, physiologists, physicians and computer specialists employed by the Human Factors Section of Eastman Kodak Co in Rochester, New York.
New regulations which came into effect on 1 July 1983 extend the system of fire warning labels for new upholstered furniture on sale to the public. Square green-edged labels will identify furniture which has passed both the British Standard cigarette and match tests. Up to now furniture which passed both these tests did not carry any label. The 1980 regulations had required red warning labels for domestic furniture likely to catch fire from smouldering cigarettes or matches, and all furniture put on the market since the end of last year has had to pass the cigarette test. So, if a label had dropped off or been forgotten, customers may have been misled into thinking the furniture was more fire resistant than it was.
The book describes innovative techniques for improving work performance and prodttctivity; offers guidelines for workplace and equipment design, paying special attention to the physical capabilities of women and older workers; and gives proven methods for reducing injuries, discomfort and job-related stress. It is divided into five sections, including Workplace Design, Equipment Design, Information Transfer, Environment, and Appendices on anthropometric data and survey techniques. The Kodak authors also outline methods for evaluating existing conditions and improving them quickly. Other sections describe how to design adjustable workplaces, select and instal safe video display units, reduce noise and vibration, improve thermal comfort, and to use special purpose lighting to improve inspection performance.
Developments in health and safety The Steel Castings Research and Trade Association has recently developed aids of value to health and safety specialists within the founding industry and throughout manufacturing industry, educational establishments and insurance companies. For example, an ear protector selection program. Safety advisers and noise specialists are generally familiar with the legal requirements for ear protectors to be made available for employees working in noise exposures above 90 dB(A) Leq (8 hr). This new program for an Apple II Europlus microcomputer enables rapid selections to be made from any one of 72 ear protectors which have been tested to British Standard 5108 : 1974. The program has been carefully designed for operation by persons who are unfamiliar with microcomputers. Details from SCRATA, 5 East Bank Road, Sheffield $2 3PT, UK.
From July all upholstered furniture (except children's furniture which must meet special requirements) must carry an appropriate fire label: either the new green-edged label indicating that it is resistant to catching fire from smouldering cigarettes or lighted matches or the existing triangular red warning label indicating that the furniture has not passed the match test.
New bicycle A Norwegian designer is seeking a British company which would be interested in the production and marketing rights to a new type of bicycle. This product features a 'pumping' pedal movement instead of the conventional circular action. The frame is said-to be adjustable to suit both adult and child riders, and large or small wheels can be used. For further details, please contact the Norway Trade Centre, 20 Pall Mall, London SWlY 5NE (Tel: 0 1 - 8 3 9 6261) quoting reference number 97.005.
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Norwegian cycle design
New standards to aid disabled workers International labour standards to promote the employment of disabled persons were among those adopted by the 69th session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva in June. The assembly comprised 1850 government-employer-worker delegates and advisers from 138 member countries of the International Labour Organisation. Countries ratifying the Convention shah aim - taking account of their possibilities - at ensuring that appropriate vocational rehabilitation measures are made available to all categories of disabled persons and at promoting employment opportunities for these persons in the open labour market. Some 500 million persons worldwide "whose prospects of securing, retaining and advancing in suitable employment are substantially reduced as a result of a duly recognised physical or mental impairment" stand to benefit from such measures. The Recommendation sets out a series of measures aimed at increasing employment opportunities for the disabled, such as assistance and incentives to employers, establishment of various types of sheltered employment, encouragement of the creation of production workshops and co-operatives by and for disabled persons, elimination of physical and architectural barriers or obstacles, facilitation of adequate means of transport, exemption from taxes or other charges on materials and equipment required for rehabilitation programmes, provision of part-time employment, and research.
Video display terminal Ampex Corporation is extending its family of video display terminals with the D150E, a low-cost editing terminal said to have an ergonomically designed keyboard for the European market. Bob Trick, Marketing Manager of Ampex International's Europe, Middle East, Africa area, said "Ampex has developed the D 150E in direct response to the needs of some of our European customers. We have found that these customers require the fully ergonomic keyboard, which features 30 mm home row height and 8 ° slope. In addition, the Ampex terminal offers a choice of amber or green colour screens as well as eight national character sets (available by menu set-up)." The 16 single-stroke function keys (32 with shift) are programmable from either the host computer or the keyboard.
Applied Ergonomics
December 1983
315
Fire safety labelling for furniture
Expertise gleaned from more than 20 years of designing safer and more productive work environments has been collected in a practical new source book entitled, Ergonomic design for people at work, Volume 1. The 448-page text, available in hardcover for $45.00 through Lifetime Learning Publications of Belmont, California, integrates the findings of engineers, psychologists, physiologists, physicians and computer specialists employed by the Human Factors Section of Eastman Kodak Co in Rochester, New York.
New regulations which came into effect on 1 July 1983 extend the system of fire warning labels for new upholstered furniture on sale to the public. Square green-edged labels will identify furniture which has passed both the British Standard cigarette and match tests. Up to now furniture which passed both these tests did not carry any label. The 1980 regulations had required red warning labels for domestic furniture likely to catch fire from smouldering cigarettes or matches, and all furniture put on the market since the end of last year has had to pass the cigarette test. So, if a label had dropped off or been forgotten, customers may have been misled into thinking the furniture was more fire resistant than it was.
The book describes innovative techniques for improving work performance and prodttctivity; offers guidelines for workplace and equipment design, paying special attention to the physical capabilities of women and older workers; and gives proven methods for reducing injuries, discomfort and job-related stress. It is divided into five sections, including Workplace Design, Equipment Design, Information Transfer, Environment, and Appendices on anthropometric data and survey techniques. The Kodak authors also outline methods for evaluating existing conditions and improving them quickly. Other sections describe how to design adjustable workplaces, select and instal safe video display units, reduce noise and vibration, improve thermal comfort, and to use special purpose lighting to improve inspection performance.
Developments in health and safety The Steel Castings Research and Trade Association has recently developed aids of value to health and safety specialists within the founding industry and throughout manufacturing industry, educational establishments and insurance companies. For example, an ear protector selection program. Safety advisers and noise specialists are generally familiar with the legal requirements for ear protectors to be made available for employees working in noise exposures above 90 dB(A) Leq (8 hr). This new program for an Apple II Europlus microcomputer enables rapid selections to be made from any one of 72 ear protectors which have been tested to British Standard 5108 : 1974. The program has been carefully designed for operation by persons who are unfamiliar with microcomputers. Details from SCRATA, 5 East Bank Road, Sheffield $2 3PT, UK.
From July all upholstered furniture (except children's furniture which must meet special requirements) must carry an appropriate fire label: either the new green-edged label indicating that it is resistant to catching fire from smouldering cigarettes or lighted matches or the existing triangular red warning label indicating that the furniture has not passed the match test.
New bicycle A Norwegian designer is seeking a British company which would be interested in the production and marketing rights to a new type of bicycle. This product features a 'pumping' pedal movement instead of the conventional circular action. The frame is said-to be adjustable to suit both adult and child riders, and large or small wheels can be used. For further details, please contact the Norway Trade Centre, 20 Pall Mall, London SWlY 5NE (Tel: 0 1 - 8 3 9 6261) quoting reference number 97.005.
'°5
//
Norwegian cycle design
New standards to aid disabled workers International labour standards to promote the employment of disabled persons were among those adopted by the 69th session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva in June. The assembly comprised 1850 government-employer-worker delegates and advisers from 138 member countries of the International Labour Organisation. Countries ratifying the Convention shah aim - taking account of their possibilities - at ensuring that appropriate vocational rehabilitation measures are made available to all categories of disabled persons and at promoting employment opportunities for these persons in the open labour market. Some 500 million persons worldwide "whose prospects of securing, retaining and advancing in suitable employment are substantially reduced as a result of a duly recognised physical or mental impairment" stand to benefit from such measures. The Recommendation sets out a series of measures aimed at increasing employment opportunities for the disabled, such as assistance and incentives to employers, establishment of various types of sheltered employment, encouragement of the creation of production workshops and co-operatives by and for disabled persons, elimination of physical and architectural barriers or obstacles, facilitation of adequate means of transport, exemption from taxes or other charges on materials and equipment required for rehabilitation programmes, provision of part-time employment, and research.
Video display terminal Ampex Corporation is extending its family of video display terminals with the D150E, a low-cost editing terminal said to have an ergonomically designed keyboard for the European market. Bob Trick, Marketing Manager of Ampex International's Europe, Middle East, Africa area, said "Ampex has developed the D 150E in direct response to the needs of some of our European customers. We have found that these customers require the fully ergonomic keyboard, which features 30 mm home row height and 8 ° slope. In addition, the Ampex terminal offers a choice of amber or green colour screens as well as eight national character sets (available by menu set-up)." The 16 single-stroke function keys (32 with shift) are programmable from either the host computer or the keyboard.
Applied Ergonomics
December 1983
315