Businesses react cautiously to sitting studies

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By John Stodder
National correspondent for The Dolan Co.

Despite a wave of evidence that too much sitting on the job triggers life-shortening illnesses, most companies and safety regulators are in no hurry to change sedentary working conditions.

Among the entities reporting a connection between sitting and cancer, heart disease and other serious health problems are the American Cancer Society, the American Institute for Cancer Research, the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association.

Altering working conditions to reduce employees’ time in their chairs may sound heretical to employers who don’t want to spend money on revamping offices or who worry that changing workers’ schedules may cut into profits.

A business’ options for safeguarding employees’ health range from simply instructing workers to stand up more often to paying between $700 and $3,000 for desks that accommodate those wishing to work on their feet. The target market for such desks once was such innovators as high-tech companies, but now sellers are inching into tradition-bound sectors, including government agencies and law firms.

To companies that need persuasion, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a federal agency affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offers this: Two extensive NIOSH studies of data-entry workers show that hourly five-minute breaks not only reduce stress but also increase productivity.

Such regular, short breaks might also alleviate the health risks of prolonged sitting, according to studies in both animals and humans.

Researchers say physical activity, even something as simple as standing up for a few minutes, releases an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which reduces the body’s levels of triglycerides and LDL — or bad — cholesterol. High triglyceride levels are linked to cancer, and LDL cholesterol is associated with vascular disease. Prolonged sitting precludes the flow of the enzyme.

But the federal government, which often imposes rules to improve on-the-job safety, thus far has done little to circulate even its own findings to industries that require workers sit for hours at a time.

In addition, the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest umbrella organization for labor unions, has shown no interest in pushing for less sitting down on the job or more breaks. Ja-Rei Wang, an AFL-CIO spokesperson, said the organization has formulated no response to the cancer studies.

Get up, stand up

The most surprising result of prolonged sitting is the increased incidence of cancer. Too much sitting, according to a 2011 study by the American Institute of Cancer Research, causes some 173,000 additional cancer cases per year in the U.S.

Also last year, the American Cancer Society concluded that a woman who sits more than six hours a day is 34 percent more likely to die prematurely than a woman who sits less than three hours a day. For men, the differential is 17 percent.

Dr. Alpa Patel spent 14 years conducting the American Cancer Society’s study, which involved 123,000 people. She sees the need for changes in the workplace, and said she hopes the public health responses accelerate faster than, for instance, the responses to studies linking smoking to cancer and heart disease.

At work, Patel said, employees should make a point of standing and walking around whenever there is an opportunity, working in at least an hour of movement over the course of the day.

The message about the risks of sitting has to have time to sink in, she said, adding that she expects the release of additional studies confirming the cancer risk will help change how business owners and others in leadership positions think.

‘The body is meant to move’

But even companies in the health care industry, whose wellness-focused corporate staff members acknowledge that prolonged sitting is a health threat, have taken a cautious approach to changing practices for workers at call centers, where productivity is closely monitored.

The Health Care Service Corp., which runs the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies of Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, generates business through numerous call centers, where workers generally sit all day.

According to David L. Butler, director of the Call Center Research Laboratory at the University of Southern Mississippi, between 3 and 5 percent of the U.S. working population works at a call center. These percentages are based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In light of the recent studies, a call-center job would seem unhealthy. But when call-center employees aren’t sitting, said Judith Kolish, a health-promotion specialist with HCSC, they are seen as not earning their keep.

“Our customer service employees are so bound by production,” Kolish said, “they don’t often get up and stretch and move around as we’d like them to do.”

Kolish works for an HCSC in-house unit called Motiva that develops programs to boost the health of its 16,000 employees.

Motiva, Kolish said, has not asked the company to require its call-center employees get out of their seats on a regular schedule. However, Kolish is piloting a program called “Am I Hungry?” which is ostensibly about dietary choices.

“The body is meant to move,” Kolish said. “But we’re doing quite the opposite when we’re sitting eight to 10 hours a day. Employees get up and think they need a candy bar, when all they needed was a break.”

What if more breaks meant more productivity?

Dr. Naomi Swanson is a researcher at NIOSH, which also advises the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Along with a group of colleagues, she studied data-entry workers at the Internal Revenue Service, and released reports in 2000 and 2007.

Swanson divided the workers into two groups: One group’s workday included two, 15-minute breaks, plus a half-hour for lunch; the other group had four additional five-minute breaks per day.

The added breaks meant 20 extra minutes of time spent not working per day, but Swanson said those workers were less stressed, had less musculoskeletal pain and were more productive than their counterparts who took fewer breaks.

Swanson and Christina Spring, a CDC-NIOSH spokeswoman, said NIOSH soon will be distributing videos, posters and other materials explaining to business executives that a more liberal policy of breaks will pay off. The IRS, Swanson said, now allows its workers more frequent breaks.

Desks for ‘geeks’

The simplest way for an employee to counter the effects of prolonged sitting is to stand up. And there are dozens of manufacturers who sell desks designed to allow either a full day’s work on one’s feet or the option of adjusting to a sitting or standing position.

Donovan McNutt founded GeekDesk of Visalia, Calif., which sells adjustable desks that cost between $750 and $985. As the company’s name suggests, McNutt initially targeted the high-tech market but lately is selling to more “old-school industries,” including oil companies, government agencies and law firms.

“Law firms are a surprise market for us,” he said. “We didn’t target them; they found us, and now they are a pretty significant part of our market.”

In 2009, when the Chicago office of the law firm Quarles & Brady was planning a move, the firm asked its attorneys what kind of desks they preferred. The majority of partners requested traditional desks, but the majority of the associates wanted to be able stand at their desks part of the time. Accordingly, associates were all given adjustable desks, and partners, who were more concerned about their piles of paper fitting on their desks, all got traditional desks.

If partners want to work standing up, the firm has spare adjustable desks in guest offices, as well as three treadmill desks for attorneys who want more of a workout.

“I’ve noticed how people use these things,” said the office administrator, Courtney Landon. “They’ll start out in the morning sitting, then after lunch they’ll have raised their desks and they’re standing in the afternoon. They love having the option.”

Other companies regard such desks as perks to attract employees, particularly in the high-tech arena. But McNutt acknowledged that for many businesses, the price of desks such as the ones he sells would make a complete changeover prohibitive.

The cancer studies “have been fortuitous timing for us,” he added. “Pretty much anybody who spends a lot of time at their desk is our target market.”