Its either an expensive caprice that threatens the health of entire industries, or a progressive change that preserves the health of entire groups of workers.


It is a new ergonomics rule adopted this spring by the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries thats aimed at lowering the number of work-related muscular and skeletal injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and back strain, sustained by Washington workers. The new rule dictates how many hours in the day a worker can perform repetitive or awkward motionsgripping an object, typing, lifting, or bending, for exampleand will be phased in over six years, starting in 2002.


L&I hails its new workplace rule as a necessary protection for workers.


Its basically making the workplace fit the worker instead of the opposite way around, says John Peard, industrial hygiene program manager at the department. L&I says that 50,000 Washington workers sustain work-related musculoskeletal injuries each year, costing employers $411 million annually.


The rule has sparked a variety of reactions, however, ranging from approval to confusion to anger.


A lot of people right now are frightened because of the cost and the interpretation of the rule, says physical therapist Amy Leibensberger, who, along with her husband and fellow physical therapist Clinton White, founded ErgoFocus in Post Falls earlier this year to help companies in Eastern Washington implement the rule. Some (companies) dont know its out there, but those who are well-informed about the WISHA (Washington Industrial Safety & Health Act) rule are saying, We need some help.


The heart of the new rule is the caution-zone job. These are jobs where an employees typical work includes physical risk factors specified by L&I, such as working with your hands above your head; working with your neck bent more than 45 degrees; or using the same motion repetitively with little or no variation, Leibensberger says.


Employers must identify whether they have any caution-zone jobs in their workplace, provide awareness training to employees who perform those jobs, and analyze the jobs to see whether the physical risk factor constitutes a hazard. For example, working with your hands above your head for more than four hours total per day constitutes a hazard, according to L&I literature. So does kneeling for more than four hours a day, or using a repetitive motion with little or no variation for more than six hours a day. That same repetitive motion, done with wrists bent forward or backward sharply and with high, forceful exertion, is a hazard if performed more than two hours a day.


The ergonomics rule isnt designed to prevent injuries from slips, falls, trips, or other safety-related issues, Leibensberger says.


For initial implementation of the rule, L&I is targeting certain industries where lifting or repetitive motion is commonplace, including landscape services, most of the construction trades, trucking and other transportation industries, grocery stores, and nursing homes.


Implementation of the ergonomics rule is staggered; all businesses have one deadline for completing awareness training and analyzing their operations for potentially hazardous jobs, and a second deadline a year later for reducing those hazards. Small companies, those that employ 10 or fewer full-time workers, have the longest to comply with the ruleuntil July 2006.


That gives them a very long time to find out (about the rule), educate themselves, and ask the department if they need assistance, says L&Is Peard.


L&I will offer training sessions and materials to help employers implement the rule, he says. The first of those sessions locally will take place on Sept. 27 (visit www.wa.gov/lni for more information). In addition, the department will offer online help, on-site consulting, and demonstration projects, Peard says.


When the ergonomic rule was announced in May, L&I promised that a blue-ribbon panel of independent experts would be convened to make sure the rule requirements were understandable and the proposed enforcement policies were fair. The panel, which is in the process of being assembled, will help the department assess whether weve adequately helped and prepared employers before enforcement begins, Peard says.


The ergonomics rule will carry the same penalty structure as all other safety and health rules enforced by L&I, he says. The department stresses, however, that the rule wont change the workers compensation system, and wont penalize employers when workers suffer ergonomic injuries.


Businesses have mixed reaction


Businesspeople say that naturally they support the intent of the ergonomics rule.


Its all of our wish that our workers not be injured on the job, says Stephen Foster, executive director of the Inland Northwest chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors Inc., a construction-industry trade association. But, he adds, We need help in keeping (workers) from getting injured, not rules that stipulate penalties.


Foster and others claim that L&Is new rule isnt backed up by scientific fact.


According to a report by the Washington Research Council, a nonprofit, public-policy research organization in Seattle, Ergonomic science is at best partial and at worst confused and even silly.


Moreover, that report cites a study paid for by a group of Washington businesses that estimates employers will pay $725 million annually to comply with the ergonomics rulefar greater than the $80 million per year in compliance costs estimated by the state.


The ergonomics rule doesnt take into account how some businesses operate, specifically the construction business, Foster says.


When youre building a building, you dont need millions of different people, each doing a specific, isolated job, he says. You need laborers who are all doing a little bit of everything. On the day theyre hanging drywall, theyre hanging lots of it. On the day theyre framing, theyre bending and swinging a hammer all day.


Foster says hes not ready to scream fire yet because he doesnt have enough information about how the rule will be implemented. Still, the ergonomics rule has the potential to change the way we build buildings entirely, he says.


Tom Markson, executive director of the Academy Retirement Community, a Spokane assisted-living facility, says the rule likely wont impact his business methods to a great extent because there isnt a lot of repetitive work or of heavy lifting at his company. He speculates that nursing homes, where caregivers do more lifting and transferring of residents, likely would feel a bigger impact.


His industry as a whole, however, expects that the training and assessment requirements of the ergonomics rule cant help but have an impact. Everybody (is saying) its going to raise the price of assisted living, he says.


Companies that have ergonomics programs might find that theyve already done much of what they have to do to comply with the rule.


Large companies, in particular, often have already started a program and have realized the possible benefits of it, says Leibensberger, of ErgoFocus. If theyve got something intact, maybe the whole program is fine, or maybe there are some components (that meet the states requirements), she says.


One of those companies is Reliance Trailer Co. LLC, a Spokane manufacturer of over-the-road truck trailers that employs about 100 people. General Manager Greg Kreshel says Reliance began addressing ergonomic issues years ago as a part of its overall safety program.


Its the only sensible thing to do, he says. Kreshel says he doesnt know how Reliances ergonomic measures will stack up against the states requirements, but hell welcome any suggestions.


For instance, Boeing rivets airplanes together, and I rivet trailers together. Over the years, (Boeing) must have learned quite a bit about (how to do that ergonomically). Boeing isnt just going to call me one day and say, Hey, we learned this. But the WISHA folks can do that. If theyd just educate us, we can do the work.


Says Kreshel, Im not fearful of the rules.