Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 107 Hazard: ERGONOMIC

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The emp l employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazard s causing or likely to cause serious physical harm to employees, in that empl o to perform tasks involving ergonomic risk factors (including, but not limit e force and awkward postures) resulting in stressors that had caused, were ca u to cause cumulative trauma disorder(s): a) Department 31, Station 1 where one employee was perform- ing vacuum forming (operation #55). The evaluation of these tasks indicates that the employee is exposed ergonomic stressors including: repetition, hand/wrist contact with sharp edges, hands exposed to temperature changes, force applied with fingers, with one hand, with both hands, with one shoulder and with both shoulders, stooping/bending to fit work space, work space constrains worker movement, bending to reach objects, twisting to reach work, stretching to reach objects, controls and work, shoulder reach forward, reach above shoulder, reach overhead, elbow flexion and extension, hand/wrist extension, flexion, pinch, radial deviation, ulanar deviation and rotation, finger push, pulp pinch, palm pinch and finger press, and closed fist grip which are causing or likely to cause cumulative trauma disorders. The employer did not implement an effective control strategy to reduce or eliminate such disorders. The injury and illness records for 1989, 1990, 1991 document a pattern of cumulative trauma disorders associated with this operation. An employee who was exposed to undue repetitive motion trauma, excessive force and awkward finger, hand and arm positions had a history of CTD related problems while performing vacuum forming operations. There was not documentation of job reassignment or modification used as a therapeutic approach for conservative medical treatment to address the CTD problem. The employee was returned to the similar job stressors which exacerbated the medical condition. 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: OPERATION 55 1) Use automatic cutter to separate shells. Use automatic scrap removal of f scrap into container. OR 2) Change knife handle design to eliminate ulnar deviation. OR 3) Combine separation of shells/scrap removal into one laser-cutting or oth e 4) Provide powered trim knife to alleviate hand pressure when separating sh e 5) Develop double trim press to trim both halves of the shell at the same t i need to separate the halves before trimming. 6) Relocate trim press controls to lower position. 7) Relocate overhead conveyor to lower and closer position relative to trim 8) Use mechanical means of loading and unloading plastic sheets. 9) Reduce height differences between various operations involving stack of p molding machine, trimming machine, cutting table and conveyor to minimize e x 10) Gloves should be worn for protecting against sharp edges of plastic mol d 11) Heat stress could be reduced by improved ventilation in view of vacuum m 12) Use of appropriate footwear with shock absorbing polymer materials in l i platform. Appropriate footwear is designed to cushion movement on hard surf a Increase work space to reduce congestion. For example, at floor level, foo t and mats and platforms are not connected in an even surface. 13) Provide adjustable height work platform or table to eliminate stooping a work space. 14) Provide a cart with larger wheels to move sheets of material to the vac u to decrease blocking effect of debris on the floor. SEE ABATEMENT NOTE: "ERGONOMICS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM"