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 were required to perform repetitive motions in postures resulting in stressors, such as ulnar deviation of the hands, wrist flexion and neck flexion, and shoulder flexion, which were likely, to cause cumulative trauma disorders: a) Boning Department - The "boners", manually removing rib cages (and occasionally fins). While ultimate responsibility for correcting the hazard rests with the employer, given his superior knowledge of the operation, feasible and acceptable abatement methods to correct this hazard include, but are not limited to, the following: Abatement Recommendations: 1) Modification of the "boners" chairs so that they lock onto position at the table, and reduce stress on the boner's legs and back. 2) Modification of the conveyors, such as reducing their height, to reduce the shoulder flexion involved in tossing the "boned" trout into the bins. 3) Evaluate the use of double edged knives and the removal of the scouring on knife blades, to reduce wrist exertion and (hand) ulnar deviation in the rib cage removal operation. 4) Encourage the use of a single glove (per hand) to reduce the force needed to grip knives, and trout. 5) Evaluate the feasibility of a rotating table surface that will allow for reduced upper extremity motion by the boner during a cut, and during the repositioning of a trout for a "second side" cut. 6) Train the boner's to make the cuts with minimal wrist flexion and ulnar deviation of the hands. Note: A good example of acceptable cutting methods was demonstrated by a left handed worker who was found to use minimal wrist flexion and hand deviation in her cuts. 7) Implementation of training, medical and informational programs as described in Citation 1, Item 1.