The role of ergonomics in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus (full text in pdf)
Aleksandar Zunjic
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
azunjic@mas.bg.ac.rs
Abstract This paper aims to point out the potential of the application of ergonomics to prevent the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. It is a common belief that Medicine is an area whose achievements can be primarily or exclusively applied to the treatment of patients and the prevention of the spread of a pandemic. However, this is only partially true when it comes to virus transmission. What's more, Ergonomics potentially plays an equal or even a greater role in preventing the spread of infection. Unfortunately, even people who are professionally engaged in ergonomics were not sufficiently aware of these facts in the previous period, which was shown by the conducted analysis. It is necessary to emphasize that the role of ergonomics in preventing the spread of the virus derives from its definition as a science. It is known that Ergonomics is a science that studies the human - machine (object) - environment interaction. Therefore, by ergonomic studying all human - object and human - environment interactions during work or human activity, those interactions that are unsafe and can potentially lead to human contamination with the virus in his living and working environment can be identified. The application of such an ergonomic approach based on the analysis of the mentioned types of interactions can contribute to the prevention of the transmission of the Covid-19 virus, and thus reduce the harmful consequences that this virus has on the economy and society.
Keywords: Ergonomics; Covid-19; Virus transmission.