Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
July 9, 1999, Friday, FIVE STAR LIFT EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 628 words
HEADLINE:
BOND, BLUNT WANT WORK SAFETY RULES POSTPONED;
THEY SAY REPETITIVE MOTION
DISORDERS NEED MORE STUDY
BYLINE: Stephanie Hanes;
Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
National business and labor groups
are gearing for a major battle over proposed federal guidelines intended to help
workers at risk for repetitive motion disorders.
Sen. Christopher "Kit"
Bond, R-Mo., and Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., are at the forefront of the debate. The
two have introduced separate bills that would prevent the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration from imposing new regulations until
the National Academy of Science completes a two-year study.
The study,
which began recently, would not be finished until the next administration in
Washington takes office.
Bond and Blunt argue that available research on
the topic is contradictory and ambiguous, and that it would be irresponsible to
force businesses to pay millions of dollars to comply with regulations based on
unproven hazards. Each has rounded up substantial legislative support.
Blunt said OSHA's proposed regulations could eliminate
jobs because employers would replace workers with machines rather than spend
money to comply with the new rules.
Any regulations should be "more
specific and targeted toward solutions than the instincts of some federal
bureaucrats who think they know what's hard to do all day at the work place,"
Blunt said.
According to 1997 Bureau of Labor statistics, more than
600,000 employees lose work days because of repetitive-motion disorders from
activities such as sitting in an awkward position, reaching for a computer
mouse, straining over an assembly line or even opening and closing a bus door.
OSHA intends to propose repetitive-motion regulations
by September and hopes to put workplace requirements into place next year.
The new rules would require employers to set up programs to identify,
prevent and remedy repetitive motion hazards in any manufacturing or manual
handling job, or in any job where a repetitive motion injury is reported.
"We have a lot of people who are being injured, and some of them are
being permanently disabled," said David Cochran, a professor at the University
of Nebraska. "This study won't produce any new information, it will just
summarize everything that's already there," said Cochran, who is on leave from
the university and helping OSHA to write the new regulations.
Labor groups say at least as many employees suffer from unreported
repetitive stress injuries as the number of those who report
their injuries.
"It is the single most serious workplace hazard today,"
said James August, director of the health and safety program for the American
Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. "Regulation is not just
necessary, it's decades overdue."
Bond says more study is needed.
"This is a very complicated issue and we need sound science and thorough
medical evidence to help guide us down the right path for both small businesses
and their employees," he said in an earlier statement.
Business groups
say there is no reason OSHA should rush its regulatory process
before the study turns up results - probably in 2001.
"Small business
owners are concerned that they're going to spend millions of dollars in making
changes and then five years from now the government is going to come forward and
say, 'Oh, no, that was the completely wrong way to go about it,'" said Mary
Leon, a spokeswoman for the National Federation of Independent Business.
Labor groups say it was never Congress' intention to delay
OSHA's regulations by funding the independent study.
Labor advocates and OSHA officials worry that in 2001,
when the study would be completed, a new administration might make developing
regulations more difficult.
A House committee has approved Blunt's
legislation. Blunt's staff said it hopes to have a vote by the full House within
the next few months.
LOAD-DATE: July 9, 1999
