Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 002 Hazard: ERGONOMIC

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 that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees in the Kitchen Department were required, as part of their job, to perform repetitive, forceful motions in postures and with upper extremities that resulted in stressors that caused numerous incidents of cumulative trauma or musculoskeletal disorders: In the kitchen, kitchen helpers were exposed to cumulative trauma stressors of the upper extremities (including hands, wrists and arms) while twirling the coils of rope(endless) sausage. The stressors result from the repetitive hand and arm motion involved with twirling, repetitive arm motion involved with throwing meat onto meat return conveyor, repeated knot tying, cold environment, and static standing posture. Worker positions: a) twirling, table 1, side 1. b) twirling, table 1, side 2. c) twirling, table 2, side 3. d) twirling, table 2, side 4. e) twirling, table 4, side 7. f) twirling, table 4, side 8. g) twirling, table 6, side 11. h) twirling, table 6, side 12. i) twirling, table 9, side 17. j) twirling, table 9, side 18. Feasible means of abatement may include, but are not limited to the following: 1) Providing each rope (endless) twirling station with a powered turntable. 2) Lower meat return conveyor relative to twirler's workstation. 3) Seating the sausage twirler. 4) Provide wrist/hand warming devices. 5) Rotation of kitchen helpers between link and rope (endless) sausage lines. 6) Provide a tool/device which will guide or deflect rope sausage into a coil on the twirling platter.