Designing a Sustainable Future
The 18th World Congress on Ergonomics will be held February 12-16, 2012, in Recife, Brazil.
The congress will be a joint conference with ULAERGO – the Union of Latin-American Ergonomics Societies and ABERGO – the Brazilian Ergonomics Association. ABERGO is the official host of the Congress.
The congress theme of “Designing a Sustainable Future”, expresses a current concern with the design of resources which aim to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present but also in the future. As a discipline which is involved in the designing of the interactions among humans and other elements of a system, ergonomics must consider “sustainability” as a key aspect in optimizing resources to improve human well-being and overall system performance. So, one of the major challenges in the field of ergonomics for the 21st Century will be the design and management of systems that satisfy custom demands in terms of the requirements for human compatibility and at the same time consider sustainability.
http://www.iea2012.org/index.htm
Congress Program http://www.iea2012.org/congressprogram.htm
Keynote Plenary Sessions
In the early evening there will be a choice of various keynote speakers, highlighting actual trends in ergonomics and related fields of expertise.
Each plenary session will last 60 minutes. There will be simultaneous translation from English to Portuguese.
Kapila Jayaratne
Consultant Community Physician,
Family Health Bureau, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka
Short Bio:
Dr. Kapila Jayaratne is a medical doctor specialized in public health and child health. He holds master's and doctorate degrees in Community Medicine from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and had the post-doctoral training at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
He currently directs the National Program of Maternal and Child Mortality and Morbidity Surveillance in the Family Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka. Dr. Jayaratne has authored several studies on ergonomic factors in the school environment and its influence on the health of school children. In these studies, he has looked at the problem of backpacks carried by children. He designed a healthy model of a backpack in accordance with ergonomic standards, which resulted in a national campaign to popularize and adopt this model in Sri Lanka from year 2011, which benefited nearly four million children.
Dr. Jayaratne initiated many knowledge transfer programs on ergonomics for children in both paper and electronic mass media. He also contributed to World Health Organization (WHO)’s Guidelines on Children’s Environmental Health Units.
Dr. Jayaratne is the coordinator of the National Healthy Schoolbag Campaign and also the chair person of the Working Committee on the Development of Standards for Schoolbags of Sri Lanka Standards Institute.
Keynote:
Inculcating the ergonomic culture in developing countries: National Healthy Schoolbag Initiative in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is an industrially-developing country boasting of better health indices that are on a par with industrially-developed countries. To optimize the compatibility between the user population and the operating environment, an ergonomic perspective is essential. School constitutes an important environment for the child where ‘productivity’ in terms of attainment of expected educational levels is of prime importance to the child, the family and the country as a whole.
A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted in a district in Sri Lanka to assess the situation with regard to ergonomic factors of the school educational environment and its influence on negative health outcomes among school children. A sample of 1607 school children of Grade 6, 7 and 8 were selected from 55 schools using a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method.
The study revealed the need for major improvements in several ergonomic parameters within the classrooms. Observations included: the need to improve seating arrangements in relation to location of the blackboard and to make the chair and desk combination to be ergonomically optimal. It was noted that the students carried heavy bags in an unhealthy manner and that schoolbags were not ergonomically modeled.
Children perceived severe general tiredness and reported discomfort linked with carrying their schoolbag. Many children reported musculoskeletal pain with one third, suffering from recurrent pain. Ergonomic mismatches were identified as risk factors of recurrent musculoskeletal pain. A smaller proportion of children were found to have significant lateral deviation of the spine.
Research findings necessitated identification of priority areas and formulation of feasible solutions with the involvement of major stakeholders. Issues related to schoolbag were recognized as major concerns. Solutions were contemplated on: strategies for bag-weight reduction, introduction of a model healthy bag and “bag behaviour change”. Findings were disseminated through local mass media and at international forums to share and update good practice evidence. Advocacy of policy makers, ministers, administrative officers, health program managers and health care professionals of both health and education sectors, played a crucial role. The sharing of the research outcome and recommendations with the Ministry of Education (MoE) stimulated further research by MoE into exploring strategies to lighten the schoolbag. Text books were split into several volumes. The size of exercise books was limited to 80 pages. A healthy schoolbag was modeled by the principal investigator in accordance with ergonomic standards. The Sri Lanka Standards Institute was consulted on physical quality assurance. Bag manufacturers were registered and were educated on the criteria to be met in full in manufacturing a “healthy bag”.
A schoolbag regulatory committee was established to monitor implementation of the national healthy schoolbag campaign. Sample bags from bag manufacturers were evaluated by the regulatory committee and bags that complied with healthy standards were awarded a ‘healthy bag’ logo certified by Ministry of Education. Healthy school bags were introduced at national level at the commencement of the academic year 2011.
Children, parents and teachers were made knowledgeable through mass media, leaflets and at exhibitions on a healthy bag and bag behaviour. Nearly four million school children will be the beneficiaries of this project. In addition to promoting a healthy school environment for the child, this work attempted to inculcate an ergonomic culture in a country where industrial development is likely to take an important place in the development scenario.
The congress will be a joint conference with ULAERGO – the Union of Latin-American Ergonomics Societies and ABERGO – the Brazilian Ergonomics Association. ABERGO is the official host of the Congress.
The congress theme of “Designing a Sustainable Future”, expresses a current concern with the design of resources which aim to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present but also in the future. As a discipline which is involved in the designing of the interactions among humans and other elements of a system, ergonomics must consider “sustainability” as a key aspect in optimizing resources to improve human well-being and overall system performance. So, one of the major challenges in the field of ergonomics for the 21st Century will be the design and management of systems that satisfy custom demands in terms of the requirements for human compatibility and at the same time consider sustainability.
http://www.iea2012.org/index.htm
Congress Program http://www.iea2012.org/congressprogram.htm
Keynote Plenary Sessions
In the early evening there will be a choice of various keynote speakers, highlighting actual trends in ergonomics and related fields of expertise.
Each plenary session will last 60 minutes. There will be simultaneous translation from English to Portuguese.
Kapila Jayaratne
Consultant Community Physician,
Family Health Bureau, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka
Short Bio:
Dr. Kapila Jayaratne is a medical doctor specialized in public health and child health. He holds master's and doctorate degrees in Community Medicine from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and had the post-doctoral training at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
He currently directs the National Program of Maternal and Child Mortality and Morbidity Surveillance in the Family Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka. Dr. Jayaratne has authored several studies on ergonomic factors in the school environment and its influence on the health of school children. In these studies, he has looked at the problem of backpacks carried by children. He designed a healthy model of a backpack in accordance with ergonomic standards, which resulted in a national campaign to popularize and adopt this model in Sri Lanka from year 2011, which benefited nearly four million children.
Dr. Jayaratne initiated many knowledge transfer programs on ergonomics for children in both paper and electronic mass media. He also contributed to World Health Organization (WHO)’s Guidelines on Children’s Environmental Health Units.
Dr. Jayaratne is the coordinator of the National Healthy Schoolbag Campaign and also the chair person of the Working Committee on the Development of Standards for Schoolbags of Sri Lanka Standards Institute.
Keynote:
Inculcating the ergonomic culture in developing countries: National Healthy Schoolbag Initiative in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is an industrially-developing country boasting of better health indices that are on a par with industrially-developed countries. To optimize the compatibility between the user population and the operating environment, an ergonomic perspective is essential. School constitutes an important environment for the child where ‘productivity’ in terms of attainment of expected educational levels is of prime importance to the child, the family and the country as a whole.
A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted in a district in Sri Lanka to assess the situation with regard to ergonomic factors of the school educational environment and its influence on negative health outcomes among school children. A sample of 1607 school children of Grade 6, 7 and 8 were selected from 55 schools using a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method.
The study revealed the need for major improvements in several ergonomic parameters within the classrooms. Observations included: the need to improve seating arrangements in relation to location of the blackboard and to make the chair and desk combination to be ergonomically optimal. It was noted that the students carried heavy bags in an unhealthy manner and that schoolbags were not ergonomically modeled.
Children perceived severe general tiredness and reported discomfort linked with carrying their schoolbag. Many children reported musculoskeletal pain with one third, suffering from recurrent pain. Ergonomic mismatches were identified as risk factors of recurrent musculoskeletal pain. A smaller proportion of children were found to have significant lateral deviation of the spine.
Research findings necessitated identification of priority areas and formulation of feasible solutions with the involvement of major stakeholders. Issues related to schoolbag were recognized as major concerns. Solutions were contemplated on: strategies for bag-weight reduction, introduction of a model healthy bag and “bag behaviour change”. Findings were disseminated through local mass media and at international forums to share and update good practice evidence. Advocacy of policy makers, ministers, administrative officers, health program managers and health care professionals of both health and education sectors, played a crucial role. The sharing of the research outcome and recommendations with the Ministry of Education (MoE) stimulated further research by MoE into exploring strategies to lighten the schoolbag. Text books were split into several volumes. The size of exercise books was limited to 80 pages. A healthy schoolbag was modeled by the principal investigator in accordance with ergonomic standards. The Sri Lanka Standards Institute was consulted on physical quality assurance. Bag manufacturers were registered and were educated on the criteria to be met in full in manufacturing a “healthy bag”.
A schoolbag regulatory committee was established to monitor implementation of the national healthy schoolbag campaign. Sample bags from bag manufacturers were evaluated by the regulatory committee and bags that complied with healthy standards were awarded a ‘healthy bag’ logo certified by Ministry of Education. Healthy school bags were introduced at national level at the commencement of the academic year 2011.
Children, parents and teachers were made knowledgeable through mass media, leaflets and at exhibitions on a healthy bag and bag behaviour. Nearly four million school children will be the beneficiaries of this project. In addition to promoting a healthy school environment for the child, this work attempted to inculcate an ergonomic culture in a country where industrial development is likely to take an important place in the development scenario.
