Vern Putz Anderson

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | HHS · Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Cover Caption: The cover image is based on the Original Article Wholesale and Retail Trade Sector Occupational Fatal and Nonfatal Injuries and Illnesses from 2006–2016: Implications for Intervention by Vern‐Putz Anderson, Paul Schulte, Jeanette Novakovich et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23063

Background: We analyzed the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) fatal and nonfatal injuries and illness data on U.S. workers in the wholesale and retail trade (WRT) sector from 2006 to 2016. The purpose was to identify elevated fatal and nonfatal injury and illness rates in WRT subsectors. Methods: To assess the WRT health and economic burden, we r...

Manual handling is defined by the International Organization for Standardization as any activity requiring the use of human force to lift, or restrain an object, including humans and animals. Manual materials handling (MMH) excludes animate items as objects in such activities. This chapter provides an overview of the hazards associated with MMH. It...

Objective: The objective of this article is to evaluate the impact of the revised National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lifting equation (RNLE). Background: The RNLE has been used extensively as a risk assessment method for prevention of low back pain (LBP). However, the impact of the RNLE has not been documented. Methods: A sy...

This article evaluates the effectiveness of two interventions: a self-leveling pallet carousel designed to position the loads vertically and horizontally at origin, and an adjustable cart designed to raise loads vertically at destination to reduce spine loads. Low back disorders among workers in manual material handling industries are very prevalen...

Employer commitment is a key factor in an effective safety program, yet limited research has focused on the safety priorities of retail store managers. To address this, the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recruited 4 experienced ergonomists, who met and interviewed 9 retailers in different parts of the eastern USA. The re...

NIOSH's Prevention through Design (PtD) application in the specific subsector level identifies design-oriented solutions for workplace hazards. The goal of this study is to prioritize high risk tasks by examining the event, exposure, nature, and source of occupational injuries and illnesses among the top 4 high risk subsectors in the wholesale and...

This paper presents comprehensive data analyses of the health and safety of workers in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector. In the WRT combined sector, more than two dozen businesses registered high incidence rates of overexertion and overexertion-in-lifting. The goal of this study is to prioritize the high risk WRT industry subsectors, not just...

Background: The wholesale and retail trade (WRT) sector employs over 21 million workers, or nearly 19% of the annual average employment in private industry. The perception is that workers in this sector are generally at low risk of occupational injury and death. These workers, however, are engaged in a wide range of demanding job activities and ar...

Much has been learned about the behavioral and physiological effects of various chemicals and drugs on human performance. The present study concerns the attributional consequences of such exposure. Pairs of subjects inhaled measured quantities of methyl chloride, an industrial solvent, and ingested caffeine. Each performed a variety of tasks involv...

Knowledge management is an emerging field focusing on assessing the creation, transfer, and utilization of knowledge to address specific challenges. Generally, knowledge management has described efforts within and between companies to consider knowledge as a manageable asset. In this paper, we suggest that occupational hygiene knowledge can be cons...

A cross-sectional study of the 1-year prevalence of low back pain was conducted in workers employed in manual lifting jobs. To provide epidemiologic data to determine the correlation between the prevalence of low back pain and exposure to manual lifting stressors, measured with the lifting index component of the revised lifting equation from the Na...

Assessment of the physical demands of potentially hazardous manual material handling (MMH) activities is fundamental to the prevention of disabilities from occupationally related low back pain, a problem costing the nation billions of dollars annually. Although there is a variety of ergonomic assessment methods available for assessing MMH activitie...

(This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.)

Back pain accounts for about one fourth of workers' compensation claims in the United States. The Occupational Health Supplement to the 1988 National Health Interview Survey provided an opportunity to assess the scope of this problem. The 30,074 respondents who worked in the 12 months before the interview were defined as "workers", and those with b...

To estimate the prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome among US adults, data from the Occupational Health Supplement of the 1988 National Health Interview Survey were analyzed. Based on a sample of 44,233 households (response rate, 91.5%), an estimated 1.55% (2.65 million) of 170 million adults self-reported carpal tunnel syndrome in 1988. Females an...

The relationship between workplace factors and work-related upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders (UE disorders) was assessed in a cross-sectional study of 533 telecommunication employees utilizing video display terminals (VDTs). Cases of UE disorders were defined using symptom questionnaires and physical examinations. Data on demographics, ind...

Difficulties in directly assessing the forcefulness of manual work have led to a search for alternative methods of estimating force exertion. The relationships between normalized grip force psychophysical ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and the electromyogram (EMG) were examined in three studies. In each study, participants performed short dura...

Increasing evidence suggests that musculoskeletal disorders are common in the U.S. retail food industry. Cashiers who use electronic scanners appear to be at especially high risk for upper extremity cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs). One potential source of biomechanical stress is the checkstand design. Checkstand design can greatly influence the...

In 1985, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) convened an ad hoc committee of experts who reviewed the current literature on lifting, recommend criteria for defining lifting capacity, and in 1991 developed a revised lifting equation. Subsequently, NIOSH developed the documentation for the equation and played a prominent...

An early symptom of many soft tissue disorders is excessive muscle fatigue during manual work. This study adopted a psychophysical approach to determine work durations for limiting shoulder-girdle fatigue. In a series of four experiments, each subject monitored his/her level of arm/shoulder discomfort while performing a task requiring repetitive, e...

This paper presents an overview of NIOSH research aimed at characterizing and identifying intervention strategies for reducing musculoskeletal injuries during manual handling activities. Surveillance and evaluative research projects are reviewed. Future research directions of the Institute are also discussed.

A modified activity analysis procedure was devised to quantify the presence of two task attributes identified in previous research as contributing to an increase in work demands and ergonomic hazards. The purpose of this study was to develop an exposure index based on the presence of two task attributes. The utility of this job activity analysis wi...

To determine if vibration thresholds vary independently with age and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), 61 subjects, including 27 diagnosed with carpal tunnel-induced neuropathy, and 34 non-CTS controls, ranging in age from 20 to 65 years, were tested using the Optacon, a device used to assess vibration thresholds. No statistically significant interacti...

An ergonomics analysis of carpet installation tasks was performed. The purpose was to identify and quality potential sources of biomechanical trauma that may be responsible for the high rates of knee morbidity found by previous researchers among carpet layers. Nine carpet layers were studied either at an apartment building worksite or at a training...

Twenty evaluations of reported biomechanical hazards were performed by the National Institue for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) at the request of industrial workers or management over an 8-year period. The evaluations were part of the Hazard Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA) program authorized under the Occupational Safety and Heal...

Organic solvents are used frequently in industry and workers are often exposed to various combinations of these chemicals. Several are CNS depressants, and the purpose of this experiment was to assess the behavioral effects of 4-hour inhalation exposures to two solvents, toluene and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) alone and combined. Ethanol at 0.08% blo...

The present study was conducted with a group of 298 textile workers. Of the workers studied 131 had worked at least one year in a rayon plant where there were CS2 exposures of varying degree, but generally below 20 ppm, which is the U.S. occupational exposure limit. The remaining 167, who worked in plants that manufactured other textiles where any...

Industrial workers are frequently exposed to organic solvents, such as methyl chloride, and also voluntarily ingest quantities of alcohol or caffeine, all of which affect the nervous system. The purpose was to assess the behavioral effects of such substances alone and when combined. 84 paid volunteers were randomly assigned to one of six treatment...

Human behavioral effects resulting from the ingestion of an average dose of diazepam and from 3 h of inhaling either 100 ppm or 200 ppm of methyl chloride (MeCl) were studied in the laboratory. Each of 56 volunteers was randomly assigned to one of six groups comprising the combinations of diazepam and placebo and one of the two levels of MeCl plus...