Text For Citation: 03 Item/Group: 001 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 on the Laminated Media Line 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: Laminated Media Line I) General Worker Instructions and Provisions A) CTD Instruction Instruct workers in the recognition of CTD illnesses, their symptoms, and the recognized techniques for reducing the impact of CTD stressors. B) Product Selection Instruct workers to select the product only at designated areas from the conveyors at the individual workstations. Provide painted markers at the material handling sections of the conveyor. Install tunnels, if needed, to enforce the working material-handling sections of the conveyor. C) Individual Worker Health Records. The key to identifying workstation ergonomic hazards that may be caused by work practice or job set-up is information. The most timely source of information is workers themselves, their sensation of pain or discomfort, their perceptions of what parts of the job are hard to perform, and/or what parts of their job cause muscle stressing or cramping. This informationis very useful in improving workplace conditions. It is strongly suggested that a system to record worker medical information be enacted and a Worker Questionnair Program be instituted. The following are suggestions for these two means to record individial worker health records. 1) Professional Medical Information The use of a computer to log all worker contacts with a nurse or doctor. The source of the information is the nurse's first contact log, and should be expected to include the worker's name, job title, and contact information. 2) Worker Wellness Program A Worker Wellness Program should include the following: a) Exercise Program Establish an Exercise program that can be used by workers when they report to work that would enable them to loosen muscles and be a warm-up. b) Therapy Program Establish a Therapy Program for workers with ergonomic injuries. Workers that are on medical leave would work with a therapist every day to improve damaged muscles, tendons, and soft tissue. c) Light-Duty Jobs Establish light-duty jobs that injured workers can be asigned. These jobs can allow the worker to reharden their bodies before being brought back to a full-performance work program. Hazard Abatement Techniques for Work Stations II) Stuffing Station Workers press spaces inside filter sleeve and insert paper filter cylinder into the outside filter sleeves The filter cylinder is then pushed onto the sleeve and the sleeve is placed on the conveyor. The stressors to the workers can be minimized by a program including, but not limited to: A) Minimum Force-Operating Buttons on Press Provide minimum force-operating buttons on press. Ring guards can be removed if the buttons are placed on the outsides of the press and if the press uses automatic repeat controls. B) Use of "Bullet" Provide a light-weight "bullet" for use in pressing the filter onto the inner sleeve. Provide a two-handed tool for use in pressing filters onto the inner sleeve. Instruct workers in the use of using two hands for handling filters and how to turn their bodies at the feet, rather than twist their bodies. III) Glue Oven Station Workers fill end cap with glue and push cylinder down onto glue. Cylinder is placed into oven, weight is placed on top of cylinder. The cylinder rotates once inside of the oven. An end cap is filled with glue. Weight is lifted off of the cylinder and cylinder removed from oven, rotated 180 degress, and pushed onto glued end cap. Cylinder is again placed in oven and weight put on top. Rotates in oven once. Weight removed, cylinder removed from oven and placed on conveyor. The stressors to the workers can be minimized by a program including, but not limited to: A) Use of Two Hands and Body Turns Instruct workers in the use of using two hands for handling filters and how to turn their bodies at the feet, rather than twist their bodies. B) Lighten Weights If possible, lighten weights. Alternatively, provide weight lifters that raise the weights automatically when the Oven Turntable Section is in front of the load/unload window. IV) Gasket Glue Station Workers take filter from conveyor and place it in gluing machine where a glue ring is applied to the bottom. The filter is rotated 180 degrees and put back into glue machine and another ring of glue is applied to the top. A ring sealis put on a bottom weight and put on the conveyor. A top weight is lifted and a ring seal is put on the bottom. The weight is then placed onto the filter. The stressors to the workers can be minimized by a program including, but not limited to: A) Use of two Hands and Body Turns Instruct workers in the use of using two hands for handling filter and how to turn their bodies at the feet, rather than twist their bodies. B) Two-Handed Toss Instruct workers in a two-handed toss for turning over filters at the Ring Glue Machine. C) Vacuum-Lift Hand Tool Provide a vacuum-lift hand tool for handling end weights. D) Modify End Weights Modify end weights so that top weights can be returned riding atop bottom weights. E) Modify Conveyor Frames Modify conveyor frames so that the end weights can be slid from the return to the product conveyor. V) Silk Screen Station Workers remove top weight from filter and put it on the return conveyor. The filter is lifted off the conveyor and the bottom weight is picked up and put on the return conveyor. The filter is rotated to horizontal and placed in the silk screen machine where the required printing is applied. The filter is removed, rotated to vertical and placed onto the conveyor. The stressors to the workers can be minimized by a program including, but not limited to: A) Use of Two Hands and Body Turns Instruct workers in the use of two hands for handling filters and turning their bodies at the feet, rather than twisting their bodies. B) Modify the Silk Screen Machine Frame Modify the Silk Screen Machine frame so that workers can stand in front of the frame and load/unload the machine. C) Install a Silk Screen Loader/Unloader Fixture Install a silk screen loader/unloader fixture. In use, the worker will have to use two hands to lay the filter onto the carrier. Either manually or by cycling the silk screen, the filter will be delivered to the "ready" position. The Silk Screen Machine will then recycle and imprint the filter. The carrier will then remove the filter to the "unload" location. The worker, again using two hands, will lift the filter and place it on the Drying Conveyor. The carrier will then recycle to the load position. D) Modify conveyor at product end so weights will slide down to return conveyor and not have to the lifted by hand to the return line. VI) Packaging Station Workers remove filter from the conveyor and rotate it to horizontal and place it onto a plastic sleeve. The sleeve is heat sealed to form a bag. A cardboard box is assembled and the filter is placed in the box. The boxed filters are picked up and placed into a shipping crate. The stressors to the workers can be minimized by a program including, but not limited to: A) Instruct worker to wait for product to reach the end of the conveyor and not to reach up the conveyor. B) Instruct worker to handle loads with two hands and to carry them close to their body. C) Instruct worker to keep empty packaging containers close to the edge of the packing table to avoid reaching to fill them. D) Instruct worker to carry only three boxes at a time, pressing against the side of the two outside boxes.