Ergonomics touches every man, woman and child each day of their lives whether they recognise it or not. Ergonomics (or lack of it) plays a more significant role in the lives of about two-thirds of the world s population over 10 years of age who work for one-third of their lives to make a living. There are 120 million occupational accidents and injuries and 200,000 fatalities each year according to WHO 95. Occupational accidents, injuries and fatalities are undesired events. The occupational activities are planned and designed, and executed with a purpose under supervision but accidents are not. Hence it stands to reason that better planning, design and execution will help to reduce these undesirable outcomes. One must also recognise that under global scheme of biological evolution, the human beings were not designed to endure a life long exposure to artificial activities repetitively. Thus occupational health problems are inevitable if we do not return to nature for our sustenance. As a society, we have chosen to live and work as we do. In fact, there is a far rapid evolution (mutation and speciation) of occupations than of any biological organism. This places us in a situation where better planning, design and execution of our occupational activities have become absolute necessity. However, since ergonomics is a modifier and not a causal factor, its significance does not become immediately apparent to us. Perhaps it is for this reason that even in developed world occupational health services are available to between 20% to 50% of the work force and less than 10% of the workforce in the developing countries. Occupational health services are remedial approaches. The rational wisdom of the human race should strive to get proactive control of undesirable outcomes through ergonomics. Unfortunately, it is sadly lacking even today. On an optimistic note one can observe that its presence and application is slowly increasing.

Papers presented at the XVth Annual Conference of the International Society for Occupational Ergonomics and Safety.

In the fifteen years since the publication of Occupational Ergonomics: Theory and Applications significant advances have been made in this field. These advances include understanding the impact of ageing and obesity on workplace, the role of ergonomics in promoting healthy workplaces and healthy life styles, the role of ergonomic science in th

Topics Include: industrial ergonomics, risk, accidents and accident prevention, safety and surveillance, posture perception, cognitive ergonomics, telerobotics, military occupational ergonomics, and international ergonomics.

This volume is concerned with the human factors, ergonomics, and safety issues related to the design of products, processes, and systems, as well as operation and management of business enterprises in both manufacturing and service sectors of contemporary industry. The book is organized into ten sections that focus on the following subject matters: I: Enterprise Management II: Human Factors in Manufacturing III: Processes and Services IV: Design of Work Systems V. Working Environment VI. Product and System Safety VII. Safety Design Issues VIII. Safety Management IX. Hazard Communication X. Occupational Risk Prevention This book will be of special value to researchers and practitioners involved in the design of products, processes, systems, and services, which are marketed and utilized by a variety of organizations around the world. Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare Advances in Applied Digital Human Modeling Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making Advances in Cognitive Ergonomics Advances in Occupational, Social and Organizational Ergonomics Advances in Ergonomics Modeling & Usability Evaluation Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations