Millions of office workers are at risk of suffering major health problems including hunched backs unless they make major changes immediately, experts have warned.
To illustrate the danger, a lifesize model dubbed ‘Emma’ has been produced to indicate what will happen to people who continue to batter their body for the next 20 years.
More than nine in ten British office employees are suffering from poor health due to the way they work, according to a survey by ‘healthy workspace solutions provider’ Fellowes.
William Higham, a behavioural expert who helped the develop the new model, warned: ‘Employers and workers really need to act now and address the problem of poor workplace health.
‘Workers in the future could suffer health problems as bad as those we thought we’d left behind in the Industrial Revolution.’
He has written a new report called ‘The Work Colleague Of The Future’, making recommendations such as improving sitting posture, taking regular walking breaks and rearranging desk set-ups.
The ‘Emma’ model was produced based on his findings, which predict conditions such as a permanently bent back, varicose veins from poor bloood flow, a rotund stomach, dry and red eyes from hours staring at a screen, sallow skin influenced by artificial light, hairy ears and nose due to poor air quality and eczema caused by stress.
The survey found 50 per cent of office workers complain of strained eyed, 49 per cent of sore backs and 48 per cent of headaches, blamed on their workspaces.