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In fact, the mounting incidence and costs of workplace injuries were running institutions afoul of occupational health regulators. In 1991, Ira Janowitz was hired as a senior ergonomics consultant for the UCSF/UC Berkeley Ergonomics Program to apply his skills to consulting, research, and teaching. He stayed in that job for 15 years, based at the Program’s laboratory at the Richmond Field Station — the site of Berkeley Lab’s proposed Richmond Bay Campus.
Janowitz started working along with Mike White at Berkeley Lab 7 years ago. At the suggestion of their supervisor, Richard DeBusk, they set up a system of “Ergo Advocates” in every division to work closely with employees. Mike White and Ira Janowitz also pushed hard for more adjustable equipment, like the sit/stand desks. The team effort has paid off. Awareness of ergonomic issues has been woven into the effort to promote a safety culture at Berkeley Lab, and ergo-related recorded injury rates have fallen 50 percent since FY2007. Lower medical costs and lost time have more than offset the costs of ergonomic equipment. “We’ve run the numbers: the Ergonomics Program is saving the Lab approximately $1 million a year,” Janowitz says.
Janowitz is retiring at a time of tight budgets, and he worries that if his own position is not filled, the gains could be lost. “We don’t want to go back to 30-40 ergonomics-related injuries per year,’’ he says. Although he will be leaving Berkeley Lab, he expects to continue to work in ergonomics, but on a part-time basis. “I plan to be a half-time ergonomics consultant, half-time Grandpa,” he promises.
