Left and Right Hand Data
According to data collected in the 1990’s more left handed people than right handed people died in workplace accidents, which triggered the interest of the insurance companies. Additional research demonstrated that left handed people lived nine years less than right handed people. This led the insurance companies to further study the effects of the right hand versus left hand health related issues with respect to equipment and materials used in the workplace.
The Study and Its Affects
Often, left handed people are often forced to use equipment designed by right handed people for right handed people. This makes left handed people using such equipment to use it in a manner that is awkward and unnatural. The left handed person has to adapt to use the equipment rather than use it the way it was designed and intended.
This causes unnatural stress and strain and susceptibility to repetitive stress and strain injuries as a result of awkward motion. This further causes the left handed person using right handed equipment to think backwards as they try to adapt to use something opposite in the manner from which it was designed. Left handed people using right handed equipment slows the ability of the equipment user to complete a task in a timely and efficient manner without incident of injury.
Depending on the equipment used, trying to adapt, causes injury from slight to moderate to major, resulting in an insurance policy claims. There are a significant number of claims each year for such injuries. This has caused insurance companies to reassign liability which in turn plays havoc with the ability of employers to provide proper liability coverage, not to mention safe working conditions, for its left handed employees.
Right Handed and Left Handed Solutions
As a result of the studies and the insurance company’s call to revamp equipment standards for left handed people who are considered the most creative, tools and equipment have undergone significant design changes and there are now a number of items designed specifically for left and right handed people.
The redesign of such equipment has diminished the number of equipment related injuries and claims. A bonus for companies that provide the proper handed tools and equipment have seen an uptick in productivity as well as efficient use of such equipment.
Even though being left handed or right handed has less of a bearing on life insurance and safe and effective efficiency in the workplace since both sides are the same, insurance companies still collect the right handed left handed information.
10% of the population of the world population is left handed. There is no, good way to make everyone right handed nor is there even a good reason to try. The technology is available to adapt tools and equipment to both right handed people and left handed people. The problems of having single handed use tools and equipment have been eliminated by employers who supply both for their workers.