The American Industrial Hygiene Association board of directors has reaffirmed with no substantial changes the association's existing ergonomics position statement, which emphasizes regulatory standards over voluntary measures.

Aaron Trippler, AIHA director of government affairs, told BNA Oct. 23 that the position statement was reissued “to assure our members and the public that the issue had been reviewed,” and because, “with the new administration talking about perhaps reviving an ergonomics standard, we wanted to be able to respond with an up to date position statement.”

The association's board reviewed and reaffirmed the statement Oct. 4. It was originally adopted in 1997.

The statement asserted that working conditions can and do contribute to the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders, that modifying physical task conditions can reduce the prevalence and severity of such disorders, and that regulations and standards are a more effective tool for limiting ergonomics-related injuries than voluntary guidelines.

“[OSHA] should develop a strong and clear minimum standard for the recognition and abatement of hazards that result in [musculoskeletal disorders] or 'ergonomics injuries or illnesses' based on the best available scientific and medical knowledge,” the statement said. “In the absence of a federal standard, state OSHA programs should be encouraged to adopt standards to address these hazards.”

AIHA also said it supports a robust research agenda and that OSHA should continue to require employers to record musculoskeletal disorders on their OSHA 300 logs.

“We're not taking a stand that you have to have an ergo standard, but we need to continue to affirm the data,” Patricia Seeley, chair of AIHA's Ergonomics Committee, told BNA Oct. 26.

Industry Formulates Strategy.

The position statement comes just as stakeholders in the regulated community begin to develop a strategy to thwart any ergonomics rulemaking by publicizing studies that show workplace interventions to be ineffective (39 OSHR 869, 10/15/09).

“Back problems are virtually an unavoidable part of life,” Stanley Bigos, professor emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine, told BNA. “The source of symptoms has not yet been scientifically identified. Our treatment never makes the back young again. It seems we get the back problems whether we work or do not work, and more often if we are not conditioned sufficiently to tolerate required activities.”

A paper Bigos co-authored that found ergonomic interventions to be ineffective, published in the February 2009 issue of the North American Spine Society's The Spine Journal, has been cited as a key part of the business community's strategy, said Baruch Fellner, an industry attorney with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher.

By Stephen Lee

Copyright 2009, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.