Your work shouldn't hurt you

NEA Today, Feb 2001

Many NEA members-from bus drivers to teachers-will be affected by new federal ergonomics standards. Take a long look at your own job.

John Farley was a model employee during his seven years as a bus driver in a Pennsylvania school district. This NEA member loved kids, enjoyed driving, and never, ever called in sick. Moreover, Farley was a state-certifled driver trainer and highly active in a student bus safety program that was recognized across the Keystone State.

But, over those seven years, this driver's unflagging devotion was matched by an unflagging workload, which tripled from 38 to 114 bus stops a day and tripled the repetitive stress on every part of his body.

"I added up a whole day of motions," he recalls, "and found that I made 700 motions per day with my right arm alone, manually opening and closing the bus door."

Bit by bit, Farley-whose name has been changed to protect his privacy-- developed the signs and symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders. He was diagnosed with nerve damage in both of his wrists and elbows, and a bulging disk in his neck eventually herniated.

This damaged driver no longer belonged on the road. But he was forced to wage a demoralizing battle to convince his employer and its insurance carrier that his problems were directly related to his work.

After a long, bitter struggle, Farley failed to win either recognition or compensation, then left the district for good.

Today, three years after he quit in agony, Farley can't drive an automobile very far--"my nerves have a memory"-- and his back problems are getting worse.

"I'll be haunted by these injuries for, the rest of my life," he laments.

"Your body's safety mechanism is pain," Farley reminds the school employees he left behind. "If you're starting to hurt because of your job, stop what you're doing and go find an objective medical opinion. If you don't, you'll pay for it for the rest of your life."

"I knew something was wrong while I drove that bus," he continues, "but nobody gave me information on how to avoid these injuries. I should have been taken off that bus run and put on something less physical."

Farley comes close to describing part of the new ergonomic standards just released by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

These rules define musculoskeletal disorders--like carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, and back injuries--as work-- place hazards and require employers to take corrective measures when workers report "MSD" symptoms.

Barring a last-minute blocking action by the new President or Congress, the new OSHA standards were scheduled to go into effect January 16.

The new rules apply to all "general industry" employers, including public school employers in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the 23 states that administer their own federally subsidized OSHA programs.

The 23 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.

The product of a dogged, 10-year lobbying campaign by the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions, the OSHA ergonomic standards reflect standards already in place in Japan, Britain, and Canada.

The rules require the covered employer to inform workers about common musculoskeletal disorders, MSD signs and symptoms, and the importance of early reporting. The employer must maintain a log of reports, signs, and symptoms of MSDs-and management responses-on an OSHA form that's available to workers and their unions.

The standards provide a basic MSD "screening tool," or checklist, that includes risk factors. Only when employees report an MSD sign or symptom and their job matches one or more of these risk factors is an employer required to take further action.

If the problem is an isolated incident, the employer can use a "quick fix" to manage the worker's exposure to the risk. But if a group of employees in the same job category meet a risk factor, the employer must set up a full ergonomic program, with elements like job hazard analysis and reduction, medical management and work restrictions, and ergonomic training.

These new standards could benefit you, whether you work in a boiler room, an office, or a classroom.

"Schools are a complex industry 'with all kinds of jobs, many of which have ergonomic hazards," points out Darryl Alexander, health and safety coordinator for the American Federation of Teachers. "I've heard from librarians with carpal tunnel syndrome, and even from teachers who sustained injuries while moving classrooms, including books and furniture."

During hearings last year on the standard, AFT members shocked OSHA staffers with graphic descriptions of the ergonomic hazards of school work.

Ursula Stafford, a 24-year-old para-- educator from New York City, spoke about how she ruptured three disks in her back after less than two weeks of hoisting and shifting a 250-pound paraplegic student in a wheelchair. The para had received just 15 minutes of informal training from the child's mother.