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In the past decade, the atmosphere surrounding a possible ergonomics standard has changed. In the late 1980s, OSHA began citing companies for ergonomics violations under the General Duty Clause. Indignant (and sometimes bewildered) employers began to protest that ergonomics compliance was impossible due to a lack of any standard. Many proactive companies latched onto the Ergonomics Program Management Guidelines for Meatpacking Plants that OSHA issued in 1990 and modeled their programs on these guidelines, whether they were meatpackers or not. Most professionals agreed that the guidelines were a good place to start, but an ergonomics standard for general industry was still needed.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) asked the National Safety Council to serve as secretariat for a voluntary consensus standard to prevent cumulative trauma disorders. Many professional ergonomists joined with representatives of the professional societies, labor, and industry to begin working on ANSI Z-365, A Standard for the Control of Cumulative Trauma Disorders. Most of the participants had experience working for companies that had been successful in reducing injuries, improving quality, and increasing productivity through ergonomics. They began to discuss the scientific research as well as their collective experience and how this could be communicated in a voluntary standard.
When Joe Dear became the assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, he recruited a team (headed by Barbara Silverstein) to begin work on a federal ergonomics standard. Although this was to become known as the ergonomics standard, it focused solely on the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders such as strains, sprains, and cumulative trauma disorders. It did not attempt to address cognitive issues or the optimization of quality and productivity that also fall under the term "ergonomics."
OSHA began to invite potentially affected stakeholders to meetings to talk about what they felt should be included in a standard and then later to comment on the first "confidential" drafts. These documents were probably the worst kept secret in the country. Perhaps because the idea of an ergonomics standard was so exciting to many people, it became the topic of conversation at every health and safety meeting. Many professionals thought the documents were too lengthy and too restrictive. There were no doubt flaws that needed to be addressed, but before this could be done the draft...