InformationWeek

Hedge, who has studied ergonomics and related injuries for 25 years, recently concluded that using work-pacing software that alerts workers to take breaks didn't cut overall keystroke and mouse performance, and 13% of workers showed improvement in work accuracy. "That's a compelling economic case for using this kind of software," Hedge says.

But taking breaks is just one part of the overall solution. Hedge emphasizes a mix of remedies-design of computer and keyboard, office furniture, lighting, ergonomic accessories, air quality, and heat sources. Hedge predicts the latest wave of computer users-Web and graphic-intensive occupations such as designers and developers-are even more at risk than those doing general office and computing tasks.

"You might think computer programmers would be at high risk, but they're actually at low risk since they tend to type in bursts and do other things besides coding," he says. "More important, they're likely not using the mouse as often as other computer users."

According to a Liberty Mutual Group insurance study, there were no mouse-related musculoskeletal disorder injuries reported in 1988. By 1993, however, 356,000 such injuries were reported. "This injury damage is a slow progression. It's not like breaking your leg. We're seeing an epidemic of injuries because it's a cumulative event that happens over years," Hedge says. Yet despite the spiking injury reports, and OSHA's 10-year campaign to put an ergonomic rule on the books, Hedge says companies are ignoring the issue.

"Right now it's a dollars-and-cents issue to companies, and it doesn't have to be," Hedge says. "The benefits, the savings, and the improved productivity to the company aren't being well articulated. Yet it's very clear that if someone's working in a bad or painful situation, productivity goes down and medical costs go up."

Kenny Sawyer, human resources director at Bowater Inc., a Greenville, S.C., paper company, says convincing managers that improving ergonomics isn't necessarily costly is one of his toughest worker-safety battles.

"Ergonomics can be as simple as providing the right chair or giving employees a headset so they avoid cradling a phone between their shoulder and their neck," says Sawyer, who served on the Society for Human Resource Management's Workplace Health and Safety Committee from 1993 to 1997. The society represents 13,000 human-resources professionals.

Sawyer isn't surprised that the OSHA proposal, which was a hot topic during his committee days, is still being debated, since a wide division of opinion exists among businesses when it comes to ergonomics. "There are two camps. One views the ergonomic issue as a terrible problem that needs a federal specification," he says. "The other side views it as totally unnecessary and says ergonomic problems can't even be proven due to a lack a scientific information.What we need is a middle-of-the-road, practical solution, where ergonomic concerns are taken case-by-case."

That's the approach Bowater, which owns and operates eight pulp and paper mills in the United States, Canada, and Korea, has taken with its ergonomic program. The increased use of PCs by customer-service personnel raised concerns about increased worker injuries. Bowater instituted an ergonomic plan about five years ago, directed by the company's occupational nursing program and included an on-site physical therapist. Sawyer says no employees have reported an ergonomic injury.