Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 141 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 serious physical harm to employees, in that employees were required to perform tasks involving ergonomic risk factors (including, but not limited to, repetitive motions, force and awkward postures) resulting in stressors that had caused, were causing, or were likely to cause cumulative trauma disorder(s): (a) Department 19, Station VF18 where one employee was performing 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, force applied with one hand, with both hands, with one shoulder, with both shoulders, by bending and by twisting, stooping/bending to fit work space, work space constrains worker movement, bending to reach work and objects, twisting to reach work, stretching to reach objects, controls and work, reach shoulder forward, reach above shoulder, reach overhead, elbow extension, hand/wrist extension, flexion, pinch, ulnar deviation, radial 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 was exposed to undue repetitive motion trauma, excessive force and awkward finger, hand and arm positions while engaged in Vacuum Forming operations on Line 19 underwent 2 surgical procedures. No second opinion was sought prior to the surgical procedures and the employee worked at the same job position until surgery. There is ot evidence that job reassignment or modification, days off work or restricted work activity was used as a therapeutic approach for conservative medial treatment to address the CTD problem prior to the surgeries. The employee was returned to work at the same position after the first surgery. The employee was returned a second time to the same job duties without modification of the duties or the work station. 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) Provide adjustable height work platform or table to eliminate stooping and bending to fit the work space. 2) Use of appropriate footwear with shock absorbing polymer materials in lieu of fatigue mat of platform. Appropriate footwear is designed to cushion movement on hard surfaces. Increase work space to reduce congestion. For example, at floor level, foot pedals are exposed and mats and platforms are not connected in an even surface. 3) Pad sharp edges of storage bin. 4) Change knife handle design to eliminate ulnar deviation. 5) Institute a knife sharpening program. 6) Use automatic cutter to separate shells. 7) Relocate trim press controls to lower position. 8) Relocate vacuum forming machine controls to a lower position. 9) Lower height and orientation of overhead conveyor. 10) Use automatic scrap removal off trim press by pushing scrap into container. 11) Provide mechanical means to move shells from vacuum form machine to table. 12) Develop fixture for cutting table to incline cutting surface. 13) Provide spring loaded or tilted bin to reduce bending and reaching. 14) Provide sit/stand/lean option. 15) Reduce the distances and heights the plastic sheets and shells must be lifted by matching heights and locations of delivery and work surfaces. 16) Heat stress could be reduced by improved ventilation in view of vacuum molding machines. 17) Develop double trim press to trim both halves of the shell at the same time, eliminating the need to separate the halves before trimming. 18) Provide a cart with larger wheels to move sheets of material to the vacuum form machine, to decrease blocking effect of debris on the floor. SEE ABATEMENT NOTE: "ERGONOMICS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM"