August 2001

Does Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Have Psychological Ties?

Arlington, Va. - Carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive-motion injuries often aren’t work-related and can be triggered by psychological factors, doctors for opponents of government regulation claimed at a hearing last month.

Supporters countered with hurt workers and details of employer programs they said have reduced such injuries. The range of testimony opened the first of three Labor Department forums by the Bush administration into work-related injuries.

“We should discourage disability,” said Dr. Alf Nachemson, a back pain expert from Sweden, testifying for business groups. “We should limit or eliminate financial support for back pain.”

Nachemson said paid disability encourages workers to be injured, and often those injuries are rooted in psychology, such as depression, job dissatisfaction or fear of being laid off.

Workers often feel better if they stay on the job, and ergonomics programs to help reduce such injuries usually are ineffective and counterproductive, he said. Ergonomics is adapting working conditions to suit individual employees.

But Heidi Eberhardt told the panel of Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials how her job working on a computer for eight hours a day at an Internet company two years ago has damaged tendons and ligaments in her hands. She can no longer squeeze a shampoo bottle, turn off the faucet or get ice cubes out of a tray.

Eric Frumin, health and safety director for the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, said many companies, such as Levi Strauss and Co. and Xerox Corp., already have created ergonomics programs that have reduced injuries and saved money.

“These injuries and the ergonomics hazards that caused them are already recognized as problems,” he said. “These employers are already dealing with workers' injuries, quickly and effectively. They are not fighting over the definition.”

Information gathered at the hearings will help determine how Labor Secretary Elaine Chao will address workplace injuries after Congress killed Clinton-era regulations in March that businesses criticized as too expansive and costly. Chao will decide in the fall whether to pursue another regulation or a voluntary policy.

Chao has focused the hearings on defining ergonomics-related injuries, determining if such injuries are caused by work and identifying the government's role. But labor unions and some Democrats have decried the hearings as a sham and accused the Bush administration and Republicans of protecting big business.

Source: Associated Press

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