Mental Health and Ergonomic in the Workplaces, They Need more Elaboration

Occupational environments are full of wide spectrum of hazardous agents and situations. In its classic view, chemical hazards, safety issues and accidents are highlighted. However, from world war II till now, the paradigm shifted toward the other side of workplace hazards, ergonomics and psychological agents. Ergonomic hazards are rarely directly killer or cause death. They place a huge burden of problems during years on personnel health and safety. Musculoskeletal disorders are among the most prevalent ergonomic related discomfort in the workplaces. Increase in human errors, is another consequence of bad ergonomic conditions. Recently mental workloads and behavioral climate of the workplace are also considered as the important issues in occupational health. Problems like bullying in the workplace, workplace violence and lack of social support in the workplace are rising. Management of these issues are very important in reducing the unwanted health outcomes and hence increasing the wellbeing, productivity and efficiency of workers. In this issue of the Archives of Occupational Health we have several papers about workability index, ergonomic evaluation of the work postures, and mental disturbance due to the occupational noise exposure. Each of these topics are susceptible to put substantial ergonomic and mental burden on the workers. Therefore, assessment and management of these sort of exposure can enhance the wellbeing and finally the productivity. I as the editor of the Archives of Occupational Health hope to these papers shed the light on the less elaborated part of occupational exposures and hazards and give us better insight toward assessment and management of them in the work environments.