An article in January’s Editor & Publisher, a journal that reports on the newspaper industry, asks whatever happened to the carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and the other musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) that plagued newsrooms in the late 1980s and 1990s. Several individuals responded to the question, crediting ergonomics policy for improvements, but one sees no reason to applaud.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, there was an epidemic of MSDs, which included repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) as well as CTS. An article in the July 1991 issue of the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), which monitors the Media, described RSI as the nation's leading work-related illness. The Director of Research and Information for The Newspaper Guild at the time, David J. Eisen, told the CJR that his organization had logged nearly 3,000 cases of RSI among employees in the Canadian and United States news industries. And he said he believed the figure represented only a fraction of the total.

In its capsule history of the changes, the Editor & Publisher article explained that when computers first invaded newsrooms and other office settings, gains made in productivity appeared threatened by a rash of reported MSDs. The newspaper industry saw the problem in terms of liability and potential lawsuits from employees. Unions saw MSDs as a bargaining chip, and argued for better ergonomics as part of employment packages to prevent the disorders.

Then the furor just stopped, the article noted. The Newspaper Association of America no longer monitors MSDs in newsrooms, and the Newspaper Guild's national expert on MSDs retired years ago and was never replaced. Even the federal government's workplace health research arm, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), has stopped tracking CTS. A NIOSH spokesman told Editor & Publisher that the “last stuff we have (on CTS) dates back to … the 1980s and the 1990s."

Two big players of the newspaper industry report a drop and attribute the change to their ergonomics policies.

At Dow Jones & Co., Director of Environmental and Safety Paul Jakubski told Editor & Publisher that after a peak in incidents several years ago, the chain doesn't see much CTS anymore. The company attributes the change to its ongoing ergonomics programs and an on-call consultant for specific complaints. Employee discomfort rarely gets to the point of CTS that needs significant medical attention, Jakubski said.

Gannett Co. says its three-part program of sensitizing newsroom managers to ergonomic issues, providing proper equipment and sending physician advisers to newsrooms at the first sign of symptoms has headed off major problems.

The Chicago Newspaper Guild also sees reason to applaud. According to Executive Director Gerald Minkkinen, his union made ergonomics a bargaining priority at the Chicago Sun-Times and elsewhere and the strategy eventually worked. He told Editor & Publisher that in the early days of computerization at the Chicago newspaper, computers were placed haphazardly and chairs lacked both proper backs and ergonomic design. “They eventually figured out they were losing a lot of productivity and health insurance money," he added. "If you see the newsroom now, those workstations are night-and-day to what they were using before. Everything is adjustable, and employees can re-posture themselves to avoid injures."

But the top safety and health official for the Communications Workers of America is holding his applause. David LaGrande told Editor & Publisher that the newsroom problems are continuing. What's changed, he said, is the politics. The current White House has succeeded in hiding the issue by preventing the promulgation of federal workplace ergonomic standards. In his opinion the precipitous drops in reported MSD injuries in industries such as meat-packing and telecommunications is evidence only that employers are no longer required to document these kinds of injuries.

Source: Editor & Publisher; Columbia Journalism Review