International yoga day: Safety guidelines for yogasanas

Today is international yoga day. A recognition with more publicity for the science taught by our ancestors. 
A link below takes us to safety guidelines to be followed for practicing yoga. No amount of information is a substitute for teacher's advice. Just for information.

http://www.wailana.com/yoga/asanas/guidelines

Yesterday, I heard a lecture from which I learnt that doing yoga helps us to harmonize our thoughts and helps to have more concentration. A practical session for 10 minutes during the lecture also made me to realize the same. All participants were asked to close the eyes gently, to sit relaxingly, to concentrate inhalation and exhalation at the nose entrance. After 10 minutes, after rubbing the palms and touching the eyes, we opened the eyes. The question asked was, how much time we concentrated and observed inhalation/exhalation.
I pondered over this later also and thought that this practice will help us to realize about ourselves and try to get more concentration with practice.

Ergonomic hazards for dentists

Sometime back, I visited a dentist for tooth extraction and root canal treatment (RCT). Recently, my spouse too had dental care for which I accompanied her. I found that dentists have to stand for 30-45 minutes for 3-4 teeth extraction and if it is tough tooth, more time is required. Further, due to limitations like access, illumination and view, dentists struggle to hold the tooth and extract or give RCT. The patient will be bearing the pain. But, at the same time dentist too suffers as he has to take various postures to do his work. It is my opinion that dentists will suffer back, neck, wrist and palm related problems over a period of time, if they do not limit their work hours and do not take gaps between their consultations/dental work. However, dentists appear to be very busy with their appointment diary full. Some yoga or similar exercises also will help in maintaining a good health to dentists.

Some of the hazards to dentists and patients during their work are,

• touching different patients sometimes with bare hands
• splashing of water droplets on them
• poor ventilation
• need to answer calls from mobiles with fingers that have touched already the patient, leading to spread of bacteria
• use of common items like vaseline, cotton, bottles, etc which will be used for other patients also

Stress and accidents

Reason for many of the accidents appears very simple and silly at times.  Many of the accidents did not occur because of some complex reactions or failure of safety systems. But, why do people get involved in such silly accidents. I think, lack of peace of mind is the reason. When we are not at peace, we cannot concentrate on our activity. Lack of peace can be due to

• arguments with relations / servants / milkman / paper boy/ gas station employ
• children education
• well being of blood relations
• arguments with colleagues
• business loss
• greed
• simple problems like vehicle breakdown, plumbing problem at home, ...
• financial needs
• thinking about meeting, examination, bank loan, ...
• etc

We keep thinking about these problems and something happens suddenly causing some injury / emergency. I saw a video, in which it is said, SAFETY IS NO ACCIDENT, NO ACCIDENT DOES NOT MEAN IT IS SAFE.
Accident means an event that unplanned, unexpected, unintentional,...
Though, nobody intends to get in to accident, lack of hazard identification, failure to take preventive measures and not reviewing the safety processes are the reasons for accidents. However simple the hazard appears, we should not be casual. It should be attended immediately. There is no use of repenting after the accident.
Similarly, one should not be relaxed when there are no accidents. May be they are not reported. May be there are many unreported nearmisses. May be the attitude of the manager is not to see minor accidents as accidents.
It is common for top management to boast of good safety record and take credit for it. But, a trulyaccident-free workplace is a reality because of sustained efforts all employees over a period of time. It will not happen overnight or in a week or in a month or in a year.
Some people attach value to human life and workout how much money can be spent on safety programme. My life may be worth $ 1.0 million to you. But, my family does not see like that. For them, it is invaluable. Nobody can remove the tears in the eyes of family members, when somebody dies. Nobody got right to decide the value of human life.
I read in the internet that some organizations care for their employees by attending to their personal problems, employ professionals to teach yoga, meditation and allocate time within working hours so that their employees can have healthy and peaceful life.
What for we earn money, if we do not have stress-free life. Though, some people say, certain stress is required for the growth of the individual, I think this is purely business oriented. The increase in suicide rate everywhere in the world shows that so called acceptable stress is NOT acceptable to the individual. As there is no other means to earn income, persons accept the additional demands and stress themselves. Ultimately, weak hearted will take their lives.  Persons responsible for causing stress should think twice by entering into others shoes and then decide about the work.