One in six has hearing loss

Tags: chemical substances, hearing damage, hearing loss, noise, ototoxic substances

Work noise increases risk of hearing loss but very few are aware of the fact that chemical substances increases the risk for hearing damage.
Some chemical substances, ototoxic substances, may affect your hearing. Solvents, some metals (lead, mercury and manganese) and respiratory inhibition substances (carbon monoxide and cyanide) have negative effects. A simultaneous exposure to noise, styrene and toluene increases the risk of hearing damage 10-20 times compared with only noise exposure. Other factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking and certain drugs neomycin and salicylates may increase the risk of hearing loss at noise exposure.

Working with solvents hazardous for your hearing http://www.hear-it.org/page.dsp?page=2339

Energy holding work environment

Tags: Creative thinking, mental energy, quality of life, stressful work, triggering, variation

Here is a Guest Blog
from Ritva Karlström, Amarill AB,  Sweden. 
See also www.amarill.se

After  summer holiday people,  including myself,  are not only back in business.  We are also back in our work environment and all that goes with it – mail conversations, phone calls, meetings etc.

Although not everybody spends his or her holiday intentionally physically active,  many of us get a greater variety of movement that is different from the usual pattern of movement at work.   Many also get a greater amount of physical activity,  be it from walking,  gardening,  painting,  swimming,  or from just allowing the cooking to take its time.

This increased amount and different pattern of movement plays an important role in reducing stress and helps us replenish both our physical and mental energies.   Different patterns  of movement in a different environment trigger new paths of thought.  Our actions and reactions are not merely products of thought processes.  Just as certain smells trigger certain thoughts or memories,  so do different muscle activities trigger different thoughts and memories.  This gives us a chance not only to rest our bodies  and minds from work, but also opens up for some creative  (different) thinking too.   Maybe you too,  among many others,  have experienced considering a new life style,  job or business idea after a couple of weeks of holiday?

But the opposite applies too.  Going back to our usual work environment and usual pattern of movement,   not only reactivates productive but also unproductive and stressful work and thoght patterns.

In a perfect world,  we would come back from a restorative holiday and be able to hold this energy and creativity until the next holiday.  Rarely this happens.  We are often stuck in stuck environments and work solutions. 

There are things though, that we can do to help us hold our energy and creativity.   With work environments and work tools  designed for flexibility and variety, thus of high usability, we can work with instead of against the variation that our bodies are designed for.  Instead of  only adjusting ourselves to IT solutions ,  we can tune in on what makes function and be creative and work to adjust IT solutions to these needs.  With restorative spaces at work,  designed for replenishing breaks,  we can increase the continous restoration of  energy in our daily work life  -  giving us  the benefit of a better quality of life as well as an increased energy of our work throughout the year.

Getting rid of the vampires

Tags: EPA, EuP, Power adapters

When arriving at our summerhouse a few weeks ago, I had to charge my mobile phone. This is usually an easy task, someone in my family often has a similar mobile phone as me and I can just plug in and use their charger. But this summer this wasn’t the case, the whole power outlet was filled with different types of chargers, for mobile phones, mp3-players, cameras, a camcorder, laptops…none of which matched mine. I had a look in my bag and found (of course) even more, today almost every IT-product has its own unique AC/DC power adapter.

This is crazy! And what is even scarier is that people usually leaves these chargers in the power outlets, not realizing that they are vampire load, sucking electricity even when there is no device attached to be charged. And for a “normal” family with a few children, this means quite a lot of chargers just sitting there, consuming.

In the U.S. there are more than 1.5 Billion of these adapters in use, with a billion new ones shipped every year. The average American home has five to ten of these components powering devices in their homes. The U.S. EPA estimates 11% of all electricity used passes through adapters, and 30-50% of power is lost in conversion.

But things are happening. I am pleased that the mobile industry has decided to develop a universal mobile phone charger (using the Micro-USB technology as the common charging interface) – this will save energy as well as make our lives easier (I’ve spent years looking for the right charger and kicking myself every time I forgot my charger while travelling). Also, both the EU directive on the eco-design of Energy-using Products (EuP) and the US EPA have developed regulations governing both efficiency and stand-by mode of AC/DC power adapters.

But until all of this is in place – please remember to unplug all your power adapters when you’re not using them!

New leadership at TCO Development – a message from new Managing Director Sören Enholm

Tags: environment, Green IT, ICT products, new leadership, usability

It’s with a sense of anticipation and opportunity that I join TCO Development.  This is an exciting time to be involved in eco-labeling and green technology, withTCO Development uniquely positioned to provide leadership in this rapidly evolving space. In preparation for my new position at TCO I’ve been studying the worlds of ergonomics, environment and eco labeling. With  long experience from the IT market I’m used to lots of buzzwords and acronyms, and there are several similarities with the world of product certification.  For example, what does”Green IT” really mean? The definition by TCO Development includes both good usability (work environment) and low impact on the natural environment, but  others define it only by the latter.
 
Moreover, we’re seeing a widening range of  opinions about problems and solutions connected to IT in the environmental space. For instance, is IT use good or bad for the climate? This and other relevant questions about green and usable technology are vital to providing businesses and consumers with ICT products that truly do make a difference.

I’m looking forward to working with those of you already in our international network and welcome those of you interested in green and usable technology to join the conversation here at GreenITedge. I will blog regularly and look forward to your comments about green and usable products.

Sören Enholm

Managing Director

Great news source for Ergonomics / human factors

Tags: ergonomics, Human factors, USA

For those of you interested in all things ergonomic and human-factors related, I can highly recommend www.ergoweb.com. It’s a good source for product news, regulatory updates and offers discussion boards for current topics in ergonomics and workplace design.

… and this week they are publishing an interview with me about the importance of ergonomics and green in combination. Check it out at www.ergoweb.com