Janice Schakowsky: “Ergonomics may be a fancy-sounding name but the impacts on workers from ergonomic hazards, including repetitive stress…”

“Ergonomics may be a fancy-sounding name but the impacts on workers from ergonomic hazards, including repetitive stress injuries (RSIs), carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis are down-to-earth and serious. Working men and women who suffer from ergonomic injuries have difficulty accomplishing the simple tasks that we take for granted. They often cannot open a can of soup, cannot comb their hair, and cannot hug their children. All of us know someone who has suffered a repetitive stress injury. Many keep working, in pain, because they cannot afford to stop. Their injuries are serious, they are obvious, they are often life-long and--most importantly--they are preventable. Every year, 600,000 workers suffer serious injuries because of ergonomic injuries (according to a 1999 BLS study). Many of those injured workers are women. In fact, while women are 46 percent of the workforce, they account for 64% of repetitive motion injuries, 69% of lost-work-time cases due to carpal tunnel syndrome, and 61% of lost-work-time cases from tendinitis. Ergonomic hazards are the cause of one-third of all serious job-related injuries, but half of injuries affecting working women. They cost our nation $45 to $50 billion each year in medical costs, lost wages and lost productivity.”