Every job has its hazards. However, not all job hazards are pronounced or believed to exist. One of the jobs in this category includes sedentary work, where workers have to sit down for more than eight every day.

Unknown to many people, sitting down for a long time affects one’s health. Workers, such as secretaries, front desk officers, software developers, writers, pilots, bus drivers, and so many others, face the risk of developing health complications as a result of their jobs. These workers must have discovered they experience certain challenges after sitting for a long time but they do not know how to complain about them because their jobs are believed to be less strenuous. Further, many managers do not allow desk officers to leave their desks, thereby making them sit all day, except for a few toilet breaks. This makes it imperative for both affected employees and their employers to understand the dangers of sitting for a long time at a stretch.

Dangers of Sitting for a Long Time

1. Anxiety and Depression: Sitting in a place for a long time means the person will not be able to engage in small talks with colleagues or even ask them for directions towards solving a particular problem. When workers sit before their computers all day, they are bound to feel gloomy and lonely at a particular point in time. Anxiety can also set in as a result of work-related pressure, which could have been dissipated by the presence of colleagues and friends. But in situations where workers could not leave their desks, they are bound to experience depression and anxiety.
2. Heart Diseases: Sedentary works prevent vigorous body movement. It causes a lack of exercise. As a result, sedentary workers burn few calories since they use less energy. This puts sedentary workers at the risk of excessive weight gain and obesity, which in turn leads to heart problems, such as hypertension, heart failure, cardiac arrest, and the rest. Diabetes has also been linked to sitting for a long time.
3. Body Pains: It might sound ironic to state that sitting for a long time, without doing any strenuous activity, causes body pains. Sedentary workers can attest to experiencing back pain, neck stiffness and pain, and waist pain. These pains are caused by the body posture while sitting and the pressure placed on the waist. Those that use badly built seats are bound to experience more severe pains than those with more comfortable seats. Nevertheless, sitting for a long time puts the body in pain irrespective of the type of seat one sits on.
4. Weak, Swollen, and Numb Feet and Legs: As a result of the inactivity that accompanies sitting, body fluid is retained at the feet and ankles. Further, the muscles of the legs tend to become weak since they are not exercised. Clots could also form in the legs and become fatal if they break and any of them finds its way to the lungs. You may also need to know that sitting (and standing) in a place for a long time could cause varicose veins. For professional evaluation and treatment of circulation problems such as varicose veins, you can visit Metro Vein Centers, where specialists provide advanced, minimally invasive vein care solutions.
5. Cancer: Research is still on-going to determine why sitting for a long time leads to cancer of the colon, lungs, and uterine. However, associated weight gain is considered as the causative factor so far.

What You Should Do

You must have realized by now that the symptoms you are experiencing are the effects of your job type. By now, you should have acknowledged that sedentary works have their occupational hazards. But you don’t have to leave your jobs because of these hazards because you will meet one kind of risk or another wherever you go. So, you may need to do the things listed below to minimize these dangers posed by your job.

1. Stand up every thirty minutes. When you do so, move around a little or simply stretch your muscles to allow blood flow to your legs and other parts of your body. Standing up will also ease the stress your sitting position placed on your waist and spine. Moving about will help to exercise your muscles and prevent stiffness, weak muscles, and pains.
2. Work while standing. If your desk is high, or you have a high table or counter close-by, consider standing up for some minutes as you work. Remember that the essence of standing is to aid blood circulation and to ease pressure on some joints, so don’t stand in one position for long. Move your feet about now and then to relieve the pressure your weight placed on them and to trigger blood circulation.
3. Exercise vigorously. Even though it has been discovered that sitting for a long time makes exercises ineffective, research has shown that intense physical activities that are done for at least one hour daily help to prevent heart diseases that might arise from inactivity for the rest of the day. These intense physical activities supply abundant oxygen to the body, which allows metabolism to take place and burn off calories while it does it so. Further, these physical activities make the heart pump faster, hence strengthening its muscles. So, find that one hour from your twenty-fours to keep your body and soul together.

Now that you have learnt the hazards of sedentary works, what do you plan to do with the information? This question is directed to bosses and supervisors, who insist their employees and subordinates must never leave their desks irrespective of any circumstances. If you are the one directly affected by this, let your bosses receive the information as you do your best to relieve the symptoms you are experiencing.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday evening, formally calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office.

Pence had earlier ruled out the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment, but the House, which had earlier introduced an article of impeachment as an alternative way to oust Trump, wants him to save his excuses.

“On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, we saw domestic enemies incite violence and invade the people’s house with intent to harm provoked by President Trump. … The President has completely lost whatever moral authority he had and is unfit as Commander in Chief. His actions to incite violence against his own government and the entire Congress warrants removal from office.

“And if Administration officials refuse to invoke the 25th Amendment, I am moving forward with Articles of Impeachment to remove him from office,” Congresswoman Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Committee on Judiciary wrote in her Article of Impeachment.

The five reasons mentioned in the Article are:

1. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge to the American people that he would accept and be bound by the verdict rendered in the 2020 Presidential election.
2. Taking active measures to impede and undermine the ability of American citizens to convey their disapproval of his continuance in office by exercising their rights as voters, including misusing the United States Postal Service to prevent the 16 timely delivery of mail-in ballots.
3. Instituting frivolous lawsuits to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, falsely alleging wide-spread voting fraud but producing no evidence in support of his spurious allegations.
4. Exhorting and inciting his supporters to believe falsely that victory in the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him and that constitutionally required Joint Meeting of Congress for the purpose of counting the votes of elector and announcement of the result by the president of the Senate was illegitimate and intended to complete the theft of his victory.
5. Failing to take action to protect and defend Federal officers and personnel, property, buildings, and institutions on January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol that was besieged by supporters of Donald John Trump, resulting in extensive damage to the property of the United States and the deaths of at least four persons.

This was followed by a single Article of Impeachment introduced formally by members of the House for “incitement of insurrection.” Citing Crimes and Misdemeanors, the article seeks to invoke the 14th Amendment which prohibits any person who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States from holding any office.

The House Judiciary Committee supported the invocation of the 14th Amendment citing ongoing threats by Trump supporters to cause further harm.

“The threat that manifested in the Capitol on January 6, 2021 is ongoing. The emergency is still with us. Reports suggest that the president’s supporters are threatening additional violence in Washington D.C. and in the state capitals across the nation.

“The fourteenth Amendment prohibits an officer of the United States who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from “hold[ing] any office under the United States.” Yet, despite widespread and bipartisan calls for his immediate resignation, the president has refused to leave office. The Vice President has thus far failed to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment to remove the president from office. The House has taken every step short of impeachment to contain the danger. Now it is time to consider this last, grave, necessary step,” the Committee said in statement.

While the 2th Amendment is unlikely going to be invoked by Pence, many Republicans who have broken camp with Trump are now supporting impeachment. So far, at least five Republicans have said they are going to vote for impeachment.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has named nine Democrats as managers of impeachment trial of President Trump, as voting is expected to commence Wednesday.

Defiant Trump has failed to take responsibility for the insurrection, defending what he told his supporters as “appropriate” adding that the “ridiculous” impeachment push is “causing tremendous anger” across the United States. He said “it’s the continuation of the Greatest Witch Hunt in the history of politics.”

However, the House Judicial Committee said the impeachment is not a punishment of prior wrongs, but a protection against future evils. The Committee explained that it is true that the President’s remaining term is limited – but the President is capable of greater danger still. But he must be removed from office as swiftly as the Constitution allows. And he must be disqualified to prevent the recurrence of the extraordinary threat he presents. He must also be disqualified to prevent the recurrence of the extra threat he presents. For these reason, the House must impeach Donald Trump, the Committee said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated his support for impeachment as he believes impeaching Trump will make it easier to get rid of him in the Republican Party. The GOP leadership said they are not going to urge members not vote against impeachment.

It thus signals that Trump, who was impeached by the  House but reinstated by the Senate last year, may be convicted this time. However, with little time left for him in office, barring him from holding public office  will be a task to consider when he’s left office.