HEALTH AND SAFETY

Working with the computer

Studying at the MB faculty hardly brings any health risks. However, in the fact that you have to work a lot with the computer during your study lays the biggest risk for your health, RSI (Repititive Strain Injury). This is a generic term for complaints on fingers, hands, arms, neck and/or shoulders, also known as CANS (Complaints at Arms, Neck and Shoulders). Before your body calls you to order, it is much better to be conscious of those risks and to know the ways to prevent those complaints.

So while working with the computer, think about the following:

·	Take care of a well designed computer workplace, with a good chair and desk, that are well adjusted to your body and sit straight in front of the screen.

Take regular breaks and use them to move your body to relax your muscles and stimulate your blood circulation (short breaks for prevention every 15 minutes 10 seconds, for curation every 10 minutes 15 seconds) and besides that stop working with the computer every hour 5 minutes and every 2 hours 10 minutes. The break software programme Twitch or WorkRave can help you with this.

In the battle against RSI it is important to avoid peaks in your work. But of course, once in a while it can go wrong: that report should have been finished by long or the deadline for your thesis is coming really close. Especially then, be aware of the fact that while being very busy and working under stress, taking breaks is very important.

If you have a computer workplace at home, be sure that this workplace is also well adjusted to you and operate with a good work / break rhythm.
If you work with a laptop for more than 2 hours a day, use a laptop standard and use a separate mouse and keyboard. In this way you can create a good ergonomic workplace. Click here for more information about the best way to work with your laptop.

If you are able to do it, it’s a good idea to use the mouse with the other hand once in a while. If you are not yet able to do so and you do want to spare your painful hand, than it is important to learn to use the mouse with the other hand just little by little, so your muscles can get used to it. Be careful that you don’t overstrain the good hand/wrist.

·	A lot of mouse functions can be replaced by using combination keys to relieve a painful hand, wrist and/or arm. Click here for an overview of short keys.

Click here for more information about RSI and working with the computer.
For a shorter overview go to the 16 points of attention for working with the computer.

Safety at the University Twente

At the campus and within the UT buildings there are daily thousands of peoples present, so there is a chance that an accident occurs, someone is getting unwell etc. Therefore every building has it’s own team of well trained first aid assistants (the bhv-team or bedrijfshulpverleningsteam), so that in case of emergency help can be given very soon. The team members (bhv-ers) can give first medical aid, they can extinguish beginning fires and they can evacuate the building.

Therefore always dial the internal alarm number of the UT 2222 in case of emergency; the receptionist of Security UT will then call for the safety team of the concerning building and receptionist or safety team will alarm external assistance if necessary.

Click here for an overview of members of the safety team Capitool.

Click here for an overview of members of the safety team De Spiegel.

In every UT building you can find yellow shields with instructions about what to do in case of emergencies (attention: the shield below is just an example; assembly point is different for every building). When you are in a new building take your time to read it and to look around where escape routes and emergency exists are, so you are well prepared in case something happens.

Logo: what to do in emergencies

The occupational health, safety and environment coordinator must be informed about (possible) dangerous situations or “almost-accidents”. Here you can download the form you need to fill in.

Adresses

If you have had a small accident and you need a plaster or so, you can go to every member of the safety team or to the reception.

Every faculty has it’s own occupational health, safety and environment coordinator, where you can go to with specific questions about occupational health and safety. For MB this is mrs. M.J. van Velthoven, Capitool C-002, tel. 3828 en e-mail m.j.vanvelthoven@bbt.utwente.nl.