OSHA Flooded With Ergonomics Comments

More than 6,000 comments have been logged by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as public hearings are set to begin on the agency’s controversial ergonomics proposal.

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Interests as diverse as truckers, morticians, animal feed producers and the railroads have filed pre-hearing comments with the regulatory agency on what its proposal would mean to them.

Public hearings start in Washington, D.C., on March 13 and run through April 7. A second set of hearings will be held in the nation’s capital May 8 to 12 to gather even more comments. For people who cannot make it to the East Coast, hearings are also scheduled in Chicago from April 11 to 21 and Portland, Ore., from April 23 to May 3.

OSHA Administrator Charles Jeffress asserts the need to move forward on the issue because substantial evidence exists, “that the greater the exposure to repetitive stress, the greater the likelihood of injury” (2-22, p. 2). He has promised a final rule by year’s end.

For the full story, see the Mar. 13 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.