New OSHA rules address ergonomics injuries
OSHA plans to propose new rules regarding recommended standards for repetitive stress injuries.
Among OSHA’s plans, employers would have to correct injury-causing workplace conditions that require repetitive motion, overexertion or awkward posture.
OSHA reports that 1.8 million workers have musculoskeletal injuries related to ergonomic factors and 600,000 people miss some work because of them.
Injuries to muscles, nerves, ligaments and tendons include such problems as carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain and tendinitis.
Under OSHA’s new rules, a worker who has an ergonomic injury diagnosed by a doctor would be entitled to have the work environment fixed to relieve the cause – by changing the height of an assembly line or computer keyboard, for example.
Proposed rules would not become final until next year at the earliest, after a public comment period.
These plans have already been long delayed by opposition from business groups and some lawmakers who are concerned about the cost and have protested that there is not enough scientific evidence proving that ergonomic problems at work cause injury.
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