During the Second World War a number of U.S. warplanes returning to their home base from bombing missions would land - then crash on their bellies.

It only happened to a small set of planes, including the B-17 and B-25 models. When engineers investigated to see if the crashes were caused by pilot error, they noticed that the lever controlling the wing flaps was right next to the landing gear lever.

Pilots who landed (often under stress) were accidentally retracting the landing gear instead of the flaps, causing the plane to crash.

Because a retrofit was too costly, the military made a quick, and successful, fix. One lever was altered to resemble a flap; the second had a rubber disk attached to resemble a tire.

Margo Fraser

It's a classic case of what ergonomist Jason Kumagai calls the early marriage between physical and cognitive ergonomics (or human factors).

"It's a good example of where you change the physical environment," says Kumagai, who works in ergonomics - the scientific discipline concerned with interactions among humans and other elements of a system (e.g. the tools, equipment, products, tasks, organization, technology and environment).

"But it also has the cognitive ramifications - where the person automatically understands what they need to do without having to think too much about it."

More than 60 years later, that marriage of disciplines is only now becoming more prevalent in the workplace, says Kumagai, who works frequently with the military and whose company has consulted in some Ontario nuclear control rooms to create more user-friendly designs.

Margo Fraser, who early this month became the new executive director of the Association of Canadian Ergonomists (ACE), says most businesses have a limited understanding of what an ergonomist does.

"I think what's been promoted in the past about ergonomics has been in the sense of back injuries, musculoskeletal disorders ... and what an ergonomist can do to improve the work environment for the user," says Fraser, who is also a certified Canadian ergonomist.

While that physical component remains important, she says word is now surfacing about the evolving role ergonomists play - the profession includes psychologists, engineers, kinesiologists, computer scientists and medical practitioners.

Hospitals, for example, are now using ergonomists to help prevent accidental needle sticks and to reduce the improper dispensing of pills. In industrial settings, experts are helping design or retrofit workstations "where dozens of blinking lights" can confuse an employee when a dangerous situation arises.

"I think people are starting to realize that when accidents happen, it's often initially pegged on the user," says Kumagai, a kinesiologist who has a master of science from the University of Waterloo and now lives in Calgary.

But an ergonomist looks at the environment, asking what it is about those surroundings that help to facilitate confusion or mistakes, says Kumagai.

Hospitals are one area where cognitive ergonomists are aiding staff, many of whom work long and stressful hours. To reduce the possibility of errors, for example, pills can be arranged differently, moved to separate locations, or even put into distinctive containers so staff intuitively know what they are handling.

In an office environment, ergonomists play a role in preventing not just neck, back and wrist injuries, but costly and time-consuming errors, says Dan Robinson, past- president of ACE.

When Robinson does an ergonomic assessment, he generally will spend two hours with the client. The physical setup of the workstation can be done in 30 to 45 minutes, but he also observes the individual's tasks and how they use their software.

"Many people have no idea that there are shortcut keys for a variety of programs," he says.

"They are manually going through multi-step sequences that are very inefficient over the day, never mind what it costs in terms of a year or a career."

Even though employees have worked with a mouse for years, many don't understand they can change it from a right- to left-hand position and change the cursor speed, he says.

Someone who has a mouse on the lowest sensitivity is going through a six- or eight-inch movement every time they want to move the cursor through the screen. But the same movement can be done in a centimetre or two if the sensitivity is higher.

Robinson says the scope of the ergonomics field is incredible. Based in Coquitlam, B.C., he has earned a master of science and doctor of philosophy, and his work includes contracts with mining companies, sawmills, the U.S. Navy, computer software companies and in product development.

The ACE's Fraser says that as the field grows, there is also a growing body of research emerging that workers and employers should understand.

Workplace stress remains a big issue. It affects muscular tension, which adds to the base risk factors that cause many of the types of workplace injuries that ergonomists are called in to help alleviate, she says.

"Stress is real, it's not dismissed as it was 10 years ago," Fraser says. "More is expected from fewer people, so how do you do that effectively? How do you identify and fix some of the problems?

"Maybe it's better software, or fine-tuning that software for the worker so when they open the program, it's intuitive to work with."

Another area concerns the younger generation. Musculoskeletal disorders are cumulative in nature, Fraser says, and today's young people have spent years playing and working on computers, accumulating a "buildup" that surpasses previous generations.

"I would definitely have concerns about young people coming into the workforce five, 10 years down the road, because some of them are already having major problems."

In an attempt to stay ahead of the curve, a new field - children's ergonomics - has developed.

Preliminary research shows that the discomfort levels that little kids are reporting are really close to what adults are experiencing, Fraser says.

Only time will tell if these youngsters will suffer even more problems than today's worker, or conversely, have their bodies adapt.

Fraser adds that as the future unfolds, it will be critical for employers to ensure that the design of the workplace is well thought out.

Beyond a properly designed workstation, a variety of tasks must be built into each person's job to keep them moving each day.

Research shows that people doing 30 to 60 minutes of continuous computer work suffer from rising discomfort levels, and they make more errors, she says.

The solution? Make sure people take 30-second to two-minute breaks regularly. One easy change is to put an employee's printer in a separate room so they must get up and walk.

While some solutions are obviously more complex, there are often quick fixes that cost little, but will have a positive effect - just like it did for those Second World War pilots.

Web watch: www.ace-ergocanada.ca (Mike Dempster can be reached at miked@businessedge.ca)