Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: LIFTING

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards causing or likely to cause serious physical harm in that the employees in the Dip Coat department 6457, Stick Lead department 6435, and the Burn-In department 6453 performed work tasks that resulted in: a) Injuries to the back and workers' bodies associated with manual lifting and handling of loads, ie; buckets and/or tote boxes. There numberous instances in which workers were placed on extended medical leave, and/or under the treatment of medical doctors and/or chiropractors. The work hazards can be abated by a programmed effort to study the work being performed in the named departments. The study can be expected to include consideration of the configuration of the work station, force and motions required to lift, and number of repetitions of task per hour. Based upon analysis findings, the employer can be expected to control the configuration of work stations, including material supply locations, and establish the standardized methods for the performance of tasks. This effort has been described as job and work station design. In the course of the OSHA investigation of the work being performed in the departments, the following items were observed. While we can not say that they are all significant, it is suggested that the job and work station evaluation effort include consideration of the following specific items: 1) Reduce the weight of the filled tote boxes in all the fore mentioned departments used to transport. Reduced weight will reduce back trauma instances. 2) Modify work stations in department 6457 and 6453 to eliminate the need for employees to lift tote boxes filled with ECMs.