Patricia Hayes navigates a roving hauler in the link spinning area at Cone Mills White Oak plant. 
Photo by Roger W. Winstead

Smooth Move

A helping hand proves better than a regulatory fist
in getting the kinks out of workplace ergonomics problems

Top tips for avoiding ergonomics injuries

By Lawrence Bivens

Talk to Anita Goehringer about her work, and it’s hard not to sit up straight and keep your feet flat on the floor. Not that there’s anything intimidating about her or the job that she has, but as director of the North Carolina Ergonomics Resource Center (ERC), Goehringer knows firsthand that seemingly minor aspects about how we live and work can potentially affect our health and productivity over time.

“Ergonomics is far more than simply a workplace issue,” Goehringer explains. “Our bodies don’t stop working when we go home for the day.”

But because most of us spend more of our waking hours working than any other activity, job-related illnesses and injuries are a major concern to employers across all industries because the costs are so significant. In 1994, the latest year that data is available, the average workers’ compensation insurance claim for carpal tunnel syndrome, for example, was $14,280 once medical expenses and compensation costs are calculated. For back injuries, the figure was $16,881.

Building safer and healthier work environments can dramatically reduce such costs. But there are even greater potential benefits, Goehringer says. Productivity increases. Sick days are taken less frequently. Employee turnover drops. Morale improves. “It’s a smart business decision,” she says. “Being proactive with ergonomics can help companies achieve larger business goals.”


Help Is On The Way
Goehringer has seen it happen. The center, founded in 1994 as a partnership between the state Department of Labor and N.C. State University, has worked with dozens of firms large and small in overcoming workplace health and safety hazards, some very serious. Hundreds more have benefited from the center’s research, information and educational programs.

“People have come to us from all over the country for help,” she says, “though we have an obligation to serve those inside North Carolina first.”

The center works directly — and confidentially — with employers in identifying, analyzing and correcting ergonomic deficiencies in the workplace. Its expertise extends across both manufacturing and office environments. In return, companies pay a professional service fee to the center, which also acts as a membership organization and earns part of its budget from the dues it collects from member firms.

There are three levels of membership through which employers can participate in center programs. “Practicing Members” are those organizations currently implementing or maintaining ergonomics programs within their facilities. Annual dues of $100 allow them to utilize all the center’s services on an “as-need” basis. Associate Members ($250) include consultants, practitioners, trade associations, vendors and others providing ergonomics-related products and services.

“Developing members — they’re the ones who really make the center unique,” Goehringer says. These employers participate in a comprehensive, three-year ergonomics program that is developed and implemented for their worksite. The custom tailored ergonomics program is designed specifically to control the development of musculo-skeletal disorders, and dues are based on the facility’s size, the nature of the work involved and number of employees. It is through this relationship with the center that employers in North Carolina have the opportunity to demonstrate that they are complying with state regulations that call for evaluating the prevalence of ergonomic-related concerns in the workplaces and for taking appropriate remedial action.

With its ties to N.C. State — it is considered a unit of the College of Engineering — the center emphasizes applied research. Its staff is drawn from a patchwork of disciplines, including occupational therapy, kinesiology, industrial engineering, allied health and other fields. Since its founding, the center’s primary goal is facilitating technology transfer and information exchange between the university, state agencies and industry.

“The center was the brainchild of several different people at the university and at the Labor Department who were concerned about the high rate of cumulative trauma disorders in North Carolina vis-à-vis the rest of the U.S.,” according to Goehringer. Today, the center’s membership totals 250, and its staff of 10 is drawn from all over. The number includes faculty, students and interns from universities around the region and others from the private sector. “We’re not typical of either a university setting or a government agency,” she says.

“Their association with N.C. State brings a lot of added value,” says Frank Cruice, corporate safety manager for Perdue Farms Inc. The Maryland-based poultry giant maintains extensive operations at eight sites around North Carolina, employing an estimated 4,500 in the state. After an OSHA citation in the late 1980s, the company embarked upon an aggressive ergonomics program that is now held up by government regulators as a model program.

“With the help of ERC, we conducted ergonomics assessments at our facilities both inside and outside North Carolina,” Cruice says. The resulting program led to an exhaustive series of job task analyses, the creation of ergonomics committees at each site that includes management, safety personnel and line workers, new training programs for all levels of personnel, the establishment of wellness centers at most locations and numerous other measures. As a result, the firm’s workers’ comp premiums have dropped by 70 percent, and its claims history is now the lowest in the poultry industry.

Firms in other industries can also attest to the center’s value.

“The ERC is a huge asset for the state of North Carolina,” says Ken Blake, manager of safety, security and industrial hygiene programs for Cone Mills Corp. in Greensboro. “They’re right on the cutting edge of all this.”

The company, the world’s largest maker of denim, employs a workforce of more than 4,000 at seven manufacturing sites in North and South Carolina. Its interest in ergonomics began in the 1980s, but it found information resources on the issue scarce. In 1991, Blake began writing his own ergonomics manual for the company. The company’s motivation was simple: survival. “We realized then that our future human resources were going to become scarce. Something had to be done to minimize injuries to our people if we were going to remain competitive.”

Several years later, the company hooked up with the ERC, which helped with the job analyses, the starting point of most ergonomics programs. It identifies the risk factors, known as “stressors,” associated with any given activity. “We found our biggest risk factors were in our materials handling and in the lifting of heavy rolls of yarn,” Blake recalls. Once the risk factors were singled out, Cone Mills’ officials and ERC consultants focused on improving the methods used by employees in doing these jobs. Solutions were surprisingly simple and involved little disruption. One lifting task, for example, was previously performed with employees “pinching” the object with the fingers of one hand, a practice that isolated a high degree of strain on a relatively small muscle group. The new process calls on workers to make full use of both hands, a far healthier alternative. 

“In most cases, the solution is much less expensive than a single injury would be,” Blake says.

Cone also collaborated with the center in the design of educational materials. “One of the key elements you’ll find in our ergonomics program is education,” Blake says. Cone’s training program emphasizes the factors that lead to the most common injuries — both on and off the job. Recreational and fitness activities such as bowling or weightlifting frequently place people at high risk of certain types of injuries. “It’s not unusual that one of our nurses finds an ergonomic problem that was created at home,” he says.

Cone’s results have been impressive. Since 1991, incidences of back-related injuries have declined by 90 percent. Simple strain injuries have been reduced by 85 percent. In fact, the company has watched its overall injury rate decline in each of the past five years. “Of course, our workers’ comp premiums have also declined,” Blake says.


Safer Jobs, Lower Rates
Statewide, recent years have seen a steep decline in workers’ comp costs, and North Carolina currently boasts the eighth-lowest rates in the country. To many, that’s solid evidence that employers are taking the necessary steps towards improved workplace safety and health without additional regulations from state and federal government.

“My feeling is that North Carolina employers realize how important their workers are,” explains Cherie Berry, state commissioner of labor, “and they’re out there correcting problems voluntarily because it makes good business sense.”

Recent months have seen a flurry of legislative and regulatory activity surrounding the prospects of a uniform set of national ergonomic standards that all workplaces would be expected to meet. In early March, Congress overturned the federal ergonomics rules that were issued only a few months earlier, with President Bush signing the repeal shortly thereafter. At the same time, Berry took similar action to delete state level rules.

An array of business and other organizations, including NCCBI, actively opposed government mandated ergonomic standards on either level. Part of that objection is based on the absence of conclusive scientific research and the lack of definitive diagnostics that link certain injuries to on-the-job activities.

“Because of the ambiguity of the research that’s available, no one could agree upon a standard,” says Leslie Bevacqua, NCCBI’s vice president of governmental affairs. Even physicians were skeptical about the validity of the data on the causes of workplace injuries.

Carpal tunnel syndrome, for example, though frequently brought on by repetitive motion tasks, is also caused by thyroid disorders, diabetes, menopause, kidney disorders and numerous other medical conditions. Others opposed to uniform standards cite the need for flexibility in addressing unique workplace needs.

“I’m a strong proponent of businesses being able to develop their own programs to fit their needs,” says Blake of Cone Mills. “These issues don’t lend themselves to a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Even more alarming was the new regulations’ redundancy: “Under existing North Carolina law,” Bevacqua says, “employers must maintain safe workplaces for all their workers. If they see any type of hazard, they are required to eliminate it, and it’s clear that they do this already.”

Commissioner Berry believes the answer to ergonomics problems in the workplace can and are being resolved through better education — for both employers and employees — on the steps needed to build healthier work environments. The noisy controversy over federal and state standards has served a useful purpose as a “wake-up call” to people who may not have known that problems exist.

One resource Berry recommends for employers is the Labor Department’s Bureau of Consultative Services. The free service supports both business and government entities in achieving safer, more healthful workplace. The bureau deploys its own team of experienced safety specialists, industrial hygienists and ergonomics consultants to assist employers in identifying safety and health hazards and offer advice on reducing and eliminating them. They are also available to assess an organization’s workplace safety and health programs. The goal is to help employers meet existing OSHA regulations.

“I would encourage any employer to contact the bureau,” Berry says. “It’s one of the most business-friendly things we do.”

Bureau consultants provide clients with a comprehensive written report containing their findings and recommendations. The employer’s obligation in accepting these services is to correct all hazards identified by the consultant within a reasonable time period. Other services include technical assistance, sample programs, air sampling and analysis, and noise measurements. All services are confidential between the employer and the bureau, which is forbidden to share assessment results with its regulatory counterparts.

Services are provided by a staff of 18 consultants and are typically oriented toward corporations with no more than 500 workers. Municipal, county and state government agencies of all sizes may also take advantage of the programs.

The center and the Labor Department share training resources and expertise. Labor provides OSHA technical support and advice for the center’s Office Ergonomics Accreditation Program, a comprehensive curriculum that builds in-house ergonomics expertise. In turn, ERC shares its latest findings on the applied research front with Labor Department officials in North Carolina and elsewhere.

“Ours is really a one of a kind program in the nation,” Goehringer says, “and we’re frequently asked by other states to help them design something similar.”


Ergonomics Tips

Adjust your chair to fit your body. Adjust the height to keep your arms down by your side and shoulders comfortable while working.  If necessary, use a footrest or box to support your legs and feet.  Adjust the chair’s backrest to support your lower back.