Don’t sit for hours without stretching – Expert

It is not healthy to stay on a chair and work for a whole day without stretching, an occupational health physician, Dr Muhammad Julde Suleiman has warned.

He said people need to stretch after every three to four hours and not after twelve hours when sitting and working.

“People don’t even understand they have a problem until they have backache and other physical health challenges.

They normally think they have been infected by a disease or an infection not knowing that it is their schedule of work either standing or sitting for a very long time that caused it,” he said.

Asked how occupational health experts examine and proffer solutions to occupational health challenges, he said they just observe by going round when staff are working, “ we keep noting some of the things that are giving them problem. Sometimes a laborer will lift too much weight and not the proper way.

We call this work-through-survey. We don’t ask much questions, we just observe. There is a limit of weight a laborer can carry to avoid breaking his bone. Or you observe how a tailor is wriggling his leg continuously, bending his head and  has his eye fixed on the needle, and the chair he is sitting on is hard.”

He said all this contribute to the stress of the body, adding, “ he will think he has hypertension not knowing that his work is affecting his health. 
And if you are not healthy, and come to work ,you reduce the speed of the work in the production chain. Your health affects your work, and it affects production.”