OCP 303 ERGONOMICS

HAZARDS IDENTIFICATION IN KOLEJ RAFFLESIA

GROUP MEMBERS:
1. MARDHIAH BT MOHD ZAIN 2. NOR NABILLAH BT HAMZAH 3. NUR AFIQAH BT MHD SUBRE 4. SITI HAJAR BT RAZALI 5. NOR BAIZURA BT MD JAHI 2010227218 2010806972 2010697116 2010 2010

1.0 WHAT IS HAZARD? Hazard is something which could be dangerous to human, health or safety or human plans and reputation (Craine & Mackrell, 2000).

2.0 HOW TO CONTROL There are four steps on how to control the hazard which are elimination, substitution, isolation, engineering controls, administrative controls and personal protective clothing and equipments. The rationale of these steps is for more reliable control measures rather than measures that are more likely to fail.

3.0 HAZARD IDENTIFICATION AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Students of Kolej Rafflesia had been given a comfortable home-like apartment with eight members per house. A room of two consists of 2 beds, 2 garment racks, 2 study table with a chair and a soft board. Besides, there is also a hallway and a bathroom provided. We found that it is interesting to evaluate the weaknesses of the designated house generally caused by design failure, human error and also environmental factors. After making a thorough observation, experiment and also receiving claim from other students, a list of hazard had been identified in the house.

3.1 The Hallway Immediately after entering the house, people will see a square-space hallway with a shoe racks on side of the door. Two plugs for electrical resources are provided in that area. Through observation, we identified that the students prefer to place a stand iron board inside the hallway for their ironing corner.

A hazard had been identified after observing a student unplugged a switch and left it on the floor while ironing. Because of the carelessness, the student is exposed to a danger of potentially stepping on the plug. It is recommended that the students keep the unused wire wisely in a safe place to avoid any mishaps. Besides, placing of water heater in a lower space near an ironing corner is not suggested as it has the intensity of people accidentally split the water out. Thus, it makes the floor become slippery and the splatted water may contact with the maze of plug on the floor.

Due to the placement of the water heater, it was also pinpointed that student may face difficulty while pouring the water into the cup. The student had to bend her trunk forward and prone to the right in order to make sure her vision is directed to the poured water.

It is advocated to eliminate the water heater from the place and change it to the waist-level table as it is a frequently used item. It is also advisable for her to lift the jug and poured the water into a cup place on the table instead of on floor. On the other hand, we found a faulty switch that was unused. The switch can cause an electrical hazard such as short circuit and electrical shock. The damage should be reported to the administrator and appropriate response should be taken.

3.2 Room Another area which hazard can be found is room area. The hazards that can be seen are the window in every room and at the hall are not provided with window grill. It may contribute to danger if the student sits near the window. This is human error as during the construction, every window at the hostel is not design with the window grills. To overcome this hazard, the window should be redesign by add window grill at the window.

Second hazard is source of light from the window. As in the picture, we can see that the study table is facing the window. The lighting is not good for the student as it can increased the students visual acuity if prolonged reading or using computer in front of the window. As a solution, the student can closed the window with curtain in order to reduce the amount of direct sunlight received. Besides that, the student may used vertical blind curtain and also paste paper on the window as it would decrease the amount of direct sunlight received.

Another hazard in the room is the rare window. The picture on the above-right shows the window angle dislodged from the window meanwhile at below-right picture shows a condition the window should be. As the result, the left window is slanting to the right. It is risky to the students who are live at downstairs. Therefore, the student needs to make a report to the hostel administration in order to solve the problem. The technician can change or repair the window immediately.

The next hazard is the door in every room. As we know, the college area is always windy and the door bang always makes sound hazard. Due to the strong wind, the door is automatically close by itself and produces a loud noise. As a solution, the student placed a detergent bottle to avoid the door from closed automatically during strong wind. However, it is not suitable as the detergent bottle is broken when the door is closed with strong power from the wind. Then, the student used the door stopper for the same problem and it is an effective solution. Instead of that, the student may recommend to the hostel administration to redesign the door with hydraulic hinge in order to reduce the noisy.

Besides that, there is also electrical hazard which found in the students room. In the picture, it has shown that the area of electrical use is in poor position as the extension is place on the floor and the wires of electrical appliances are quite messy. Furthermore, this habit can contribute to danger especially when there is water spill around the electrical area. It might leads to the damage of electrical appliances. So the students in the room are being suggested to replace the extension at the suitable place and keep the unused electrical appliances properly. Not only that, students is advised to used their own switched to avoid any crossing wire that can caused tripping.

The other hazard found is repeated stress on carpal tunnel area which may contribute to carpal tunnel syndrome. As shown in the picture, the position of the hand during typing need to be redesign as it will risk the students to have carpal tunnel syndrome. This is because the edge of the table is sharp and hard which can cause the wrist of the student to feel pain. For the solution, the student is recommended to use gel pad at the table edge as it may avoid repeated pressure. Students also suggested using rolled towel and place it under the wrist while performing prolonged typing.

Another hazard is from human error. This hazard happen because of the student habit as the student always placed her leg at the drawer. It can be problem as the door of the drawer will wreck considering a repetitive weight given to the cabinet. The solution for this problem is to report to the hostel administration and the student is being advised for not practising the habit anymore. However, the student is recommended to use thick book and placing it under her leg to make her comfortable during sitting on the chair.

The other hazard is also human error. In hostel of UiTM Puncak Alam, the students used the curtain rail to hang over their clothes in order to get direct sunlight to dry their clothes. This habit is not recommended to the student as it will make the rail broken down and the student may risk to the danger during hanging their clothes at the curtain rail. In order

to solve the problem, the students need to buy a garment rack to hanging their clothes rather than hang it at the rail. Besides that, the students may tie a rope at the toilet and hang their clothes at it.

3.3 The Bathroom The bathroom consists of mainly 2 shower rooms and one toilet room. There are also a space for hanging cloth and a table top tile for laundry. Based on the discontentment of student, the design of shower room is very small and the space is not suitable with majority of students personal space. The cubicle of the shower room makes the reaching, stretching hand out and kicking space become limited.

The picture above shows that a student is having difficulty in wiping her body after taking a bath. She is unable to stretch both arm and make her difficult to change her position while bathing, wiping and donning garments. She claims that she always got stuck while switching position and inadvertently hit the pipe. The bathroom too is not providing any rack for user to place toiletries. Thus, the students usually place their soaps and shampoos on floor. Through observation, it was seen that the student have to extremely bend downwards in order to reach the toiletries while bathing. Imagine that bathing activity was done approximately 2 times per day with toiletries that usually been used are like soaps, shampoos, face cleanser, toothbrush and etc., and the user have to bend for like twice to place stuff on floor before bathing, to reach and place back while bathing and also reach the toiletries back

after bathing. This repetitive movement will leads to development of back pain for prolonged time.

We suggest that, the bathroom have to be redesign to widen the area after consider the daily used of the toilet. The complaint should be reported to the authorized party for further action. Besides, in order to prevent repetitive bending, student may place a rack or a hanging basket inside the bathroom while using it (Knott, 2010). In another cases, it was found that a student is doing laundry in the bathroom. Laundry was done using a pail of water whereas the nearest water source is in the bathroom cubicle mentioned before. When lifting the pail into the bathroom to rinse the cloth, student needs to perform crab-like movement because the space is too small. Still due to small spaces, student commonly unable to squat while lifting the heavy pail and taking the easy way to lift up the pail full of water with trunk bending. Student also complained that she

sometime hit the pipe and former soap on head and hit the door knob on back while lifting the pail.

To solve the problem, a long hose is recommended so that student does not have to lift the pail into that small cubicle. Besides, the student should be educating with the ergonomic way of lifting with correct body posture. After doing an experiment, it was identified that, apart from inadequate space and poor body mechanic, slippery floor also become one of the hazardous factors in the bathroom (Knott, 2010). This is due to the habit of pouring water with soap on floor after laundry. After a few minutes, the water will dried leaving an alkaline surface of floor that make the bathroom more slippery. This will leads to possibility of fall.

It was suggested that the student to rinse the soapy water after doing laundry with the used of water repellent mop. Apart from that, non-slip mat also can be used on the floor to reduce the slippery risk on the surface. Student also is advised to use rubber slippers when entering the bathroom to prevent falling. However, student had to make sure the sole of shoe has a good grip to increase friction to the floor.

Related to laundry activity, we also found the human error in the bathroom. Due to insufficient place to hang on cloth, student takes an easy way by hanging the cloth on the jalousie window.

This will leads to the possibility of the glass slip downwards and break. The act of hanging cloth on the glass should be eliminated as it is against the law of work and may cause any unwanted incidents.