Some of society’s most vexing questions today span the axis between public policy and personal responsibility. Recycling plastic is good for the environment and a civic duty, of course. But, according to past reporting by PBS and NPR, it’s also a status quo that plastics-producing companies have, themselves, quietly promoted since the 1970s to avoid regulations against single-use plastics by foisting the industry’s responsibilities onto consumers.

Could it be possible that bad posture at your desk job or any repetitive stress injuries incurred by sedentary labor might be more of a systemic issue than a question of your personal failings? This thorny, rhetorical, and maybe unanswerable question is at the heart of the issue with ergonomics—but fortunately physiotherapists at Australia’s University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have now taken the most comprehensive look yet at ergonomics’ efficacy for occupational health.…