Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 255 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 16, Station 5 where one employee was perform- ing attaching skid plate (operation #377) and pop-riveting lift levers (operation # 674). The evaluation of these tasks indicates that the employee is exposed ergonomic stressors including: repetition, hand/wrist contact with sharp edges, hands exposed to vibration and forced movements, force applied with fingers, with one hand, with both hands, from one shoulder, from both shoulders, by twisting and by bending, stooping/bending to fit work space, bending to reach and to see work, twisting to reach work and objects, stretching to reach objects, reaching forward, behind body and above shoulders, elbow flexion and extension, hand/wrist extension, flexion, pinch, radial deviation, ulnar deviation and rotation, finger push, palm pinch and medial grasp, and closed fist grip and pinch grip which are causing or likely to cause cumulative trauma disorders. The employer did not implement an effective control strategy to reduce or elimin- ate such disorders. The injury and illness records for 1989, 1990, 1991 document a pattern of cumulative trauma disorders associated with these operations. 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 377 1) Provide screwdriver with longer handle or adjust articulated arm. 2) Provide a vibration dampening handle for the screwdriver. 3) Minimize the torque of the screwdriver and maintain through a preventative maintenance 4) Reduce the number of job tasks to increase rest time. 5) Automate installation of skid plate to manual installation of screws. 6) Add additional station and worker to perform operation. 7) Reduce the number of screws necessary to attach plate. 8) Install rotating, tilted fixture to minimize reaches. 9) Change grip of screwdriver to pistol grip. 10) Provide sit/stand/lean option to eliminate prolonged static posture with adjustable work station. 11) Provide shock absorbing footwear or adequate fatigue mats. 12) Install mechanical ejector of mechanical diverter bar to move shells on and off the line. 13) Use regular rest breaks to decrease duration of exposure to ergonomic stressors. 14) Reduce the number of screws necessary to attach plate. ABATEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS: OPERATION 674 1) Provide adjustable work table and fixture to eliminate shoulder abduction and extreme elbow and wrist deviations. 2) Suspend and counter-weight rivet gun to eliminate forceful ex- ertions. 3) Reduce weight of rivet gun to eliminate forceful exertions. OR 4) Provide ergonomically designed riveter which allows the employee to perform the operation while keeping the elbow in close to the body and at approximately a 90 degree angle and the wrist in an ergonomically neutral position. (The current tool could be modified and suspended to be used in an upside down configuration with the actuator mechanism on the opposite side of the tool.) 5) Reduce the number of job tasks to increase rest time. 6) Add more operators to increase rest break opportunities and reduce strain from repetition. 7) Provide sit/stand/lean option with adjustable work station to reduce static posture 8) Change shell orientation to more upright position with aid of shell support frame to reduce wrist deviations when using pop-rivet gun. SEE ABATEMENT NOTE: "ERGONOMICS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM"