A faithful reader writes:
Could you address the ergonomic issues archaeologists face in the field, especially chronic illnesses- musculoskeletal disorders and cumulative trauma disorders? My company is in a crisis situation because of our archaeology department's nonchalant attitude toward health and safety. Are there any resources you can recommend that specifically address the aforementioned disorders? Do you know of anyone who has addressed these issues in his/her company?There's a health and safety section here, but it doesn't include chronic disease or repetitive stress injuries. It seems to me that I've heard something about Hanta virus susceptibility among archaeologists, but that was quite a while ago. Can anyone else help out?
Comments
Do not forget “Valley Fever” (coccidiomycosis). Samuel Guernsey of “Kidder and Guernsey” died of that.
I have always considered alcoholism an occupational hazard, although we do not drink as much as house painters.
Hanta virus can affect archaeologists (and non-archaeologists) working in the Southwestern U.S. It isn’t much of a problem among Eastern U.S. archaeologists. I know that working in foreign countries also has the possiblity of picking up various local diseases (malaria, cholera, there is a liver fluke that one can pick up from drinking bad water in Peru, etc.).
Alcoholism can be a problem, and you know we do consume mass quantities of beer, etc., at our meetings. However, I would say that alcoholism isn’t any more common or rarer than what occurs in the general public. My own impression is our parties have become much more calm as we have aged. Maybe that’s just the good old days syndrome, but I do think we’ve (and this includes younger members of the profession) toned it down.
Mark A. McConaughy
I am an Occupational therapist with 20 years of experience in ergonomics and trauma, and am also a third year grad student in anthro/archeology. My data indicates that spinal problems, particularly lower back pain, are ubiquitous as well as localized pain syndromes from repetitive motion,including carpal tunnel (trowel maneuvers),shoulder bursitis and strain
(digging,sifting), and various hip strains also due to static posturing in flexion over an excavation area. The key obviously is to regularly change positions and treat the onset of strain/CTR, or other syndromes with a
pro-active approach. Preventitive medicine is ideally the best approach via a good company program that addresses ergonomics.
Feel free to email me at simhand1@hotmail.com
I know that after 35 years of field work that I have shoulder problems, pain in the lower back, stiffness of the fingers and other joints and have had one hernia which was directly job related.
I found this article that might be of interest. It’s on the predilection for workplace managers to be skeptical of claims about repetitive stress injuries in general and how that affects the ability to have these types of ailments addressed.
Ellen MacEachen (2005). The demise of repetitive strain injury in sceptical governing rationalities of workplace managers. Sociology of Health & Illness 27 (4), 490–514.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2005.00453.x
I’ve worked in the field since 1972 and can’t say that I have any problems with back pain that are due to archaeological work. It likely had to do with weight lifting that I used to do more so than archaeological work (i.e., compressed disks from overhead lifts).
Arthritis may be starting up in my fingers, but is it due to archaeological work or natural aging? I’d like to see some statistics comparing occurances in archaeologists vs. a random sample of folks from other fields before claiming arthritis, etc., might be job related.
I can see carpal tunnel or repetative use types of problems occuring because of our use of computers, but that also happens in many other jobs. Nevertheless, it certainly is something that occurs due to computer use in our jobs. I know several people who have had to get operations to correct the problem.
One new disease that may be a result of our field work in the Eastern U.S. is Lyme disease. If you catch it, you may not be able to totally cure the damage it inflicts. So far, I’ve been lucky and not caught it, but I know several other archaeologists who have. This disease could happen to anyone working outdoors in our area, though.
I’ve always wondered if my increasingly bad eyesight is due to time spent looking through microscopes at tool edges for edge wear analysis. However, I’ve always had bad eyes and it may be genetic. I started wearing glasses when I was five, long before I ever thought about archaeology.
Mark A. McConaughy
I imagine skin cancer has a good chance of sneaking up on many of us with fairer skin. kidney stones arise from bad drinking habits(excess caffeine and alcohol) and dehydration, as well as stress.Eyesight could be an issue. Living condition problems are more of the disease type. Those seem to be pretty well covered. Im sure food-borne illness like stomach flu and water-borne illness like giardia are common enough.
I’ve worked in Arizona as an archaeologist for almost 20 years. skin cancer is fairly common (no surprise there) with us “old-timers”, as are chronic eye and lung issues, as well as arthritis in the hands, knee problems from kneeling, and hip issues from squatting. Some of this may be the normal aging process, but I am pretty sure that these symptoms are exacerbated by, if not created by, fieldwork. In addition, we have hantavirus, although I only know personally of one person who was a victim. Valley Fever is an issue here, and I know of several archaeologists who have suffered from it, I don’t know if VF is actually more prevalent among archaeologists and people that work outside, or if that statistic is merely an artifact of my personal experience. Cheers! Gina