**2. What is ergonomics?**

Many workers and employers constantly face one or more of the episodes described in the introduction. The episodes illustrate the role of ergonomics and human factors, industrial hygienist and safety specialist in workplace design. The umbrella for human safety and health at workplaces is known as the ergonomics and human factors. Various definitions exist for ergonomics and human factors from different sources such as scientific literature, professional organizations, governmental agencies, scholars etc. Ergonomics as defined by scientists is the science and practice of designing jobs and workplaces to match the capabilities and limitations of the human body. In 2018, it was precisely defined as fitting the job, workplaces, products to users' capability to enhance safety and good health of the users [5]. CETENA (The Italian Ship Research Company) defined ergonomics as the study of human performance and its application to the design of technological

**3**

*Introductory Chapter: Safety and Health for Workers - Theory and Applications*

sickness, diseases, and transfer of similar dangerous germs.

Workplace conditions have been proved to have both positive and negative effects on employees' health status likewise on their productivity. The more the employee is satisfied with workplace conditions the faster the organization success, which makes workplace condition a major concern for organizations today. In 2019, Sorensen et al.'s study revealed that workplace condition significantly affects workers' health as well as their well-being [13]. Additionally, it is a proven fact that safe working conditions influence the habits of workers, which in turn impacts on

**4. Workplace condition**

systems [6]. The author further stated that the goal of ergonomic is to enhance productivity, safety, convenience, and quality of life. It is a fact that ergonomics is derived from the Greek words ergo (work) and norms (law), which denotes the science of work. Therefore, the principles of ergonomics are not limited to traditional occupational environment as stated in Pamela McCauley-Bush textbook [7].

Hand hygiene is the act of cleaning hands for removing soil, dirt, and microorganisms. Proper hand hygiene had saved thousands of humans from death, chronic diseases, and incurable sickness. In the mid of eighteen century, Dr. Ignazz Philip Semmelwies proposed hand washing to reduce child mortality in the nation, before the discovery of microbial in the late eighteen century. At the time Dr. Semmlwies proposed the method, baby mortality was at 15–20%, and after implementing the proposed procedure, mortality rate reduced significantly to 0.85% in the hospitals where he worked while in other hospitals it remained at 10–15% of mortality rate [8]. Hand hygiene has been taken as the practice mostly needed for the medical practitioners. However, it should be considered necessary and important for everyone, as no one is exempted from sickness or diseases. Absolutely, people have forgotten that cleanliness is next to godliness as the saying goes. Therefore, complete hand hygiene is what is required in our workplaces today, even as many diseases spring up every day. Not long ago, Ebola disease took over the entire world, SARS also, and now it is Corona virus; so, who can tell what the disease will be tomorrow. Nearly, all the new outbreaks are traced to poor hygiene. Nevertheless, the importance of hand hygiene in the workplaces cannot be underemphasized therefore, the earlier the intervention, the better to preventing the spreading of any disease outbreak. In 2017, the findings of the study conducted by Prasad et al. [9] concluded that most patients and nurses interviewed reported hand hygiene as an important aspect of everyday life in preventing infection in the hospital setting. Many researchers have also suggested that hand hygiene is one of the main strategies to preventing infections that affect hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide and are constantly leading to chronic diseases, illnesses, and prolonged hospital stays, which sometime added burden to patients' financial stand and later cause instability within families [10–12]. There are many chemicals, substances, and materials human beings interact with on a regular basis at workplaces and homes, which have high potential of contaminating hands. Sometimes, people forget that their hands are dirty and pick food straight into their mouth without washing their hands, while many scratch their eyes 100 times daily and are found constantly touching their nose and seeping fingers in their mouth. Thus, educating people on the importance of hand hygiene is a crucial aspect of life to preventing unplanned

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92196*

**3. Hand hygiene**

*Introductory Chapter: Safety and Health for Workers - Theory and Applications DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92196*

systems [6]. The author further stated that the goal of ergonomic is to enhance productivity, safety, convenience, and quality of life. It is a fact that ergonomics is derived from the Greek words ergo (work) and norms (law), which denotes the science of work. Therefore, the principles of ergonomics are not limited to traditional occupational environment as stated in Pamela McCauley-Bush textbook [7].
