May 19, 2004

The wrong way to pick up any item as shown by Danny Tong, a health and safety associate at the UFT, is far away from the body (above left). It is better to squat down to the item, hold it close to the chest and then stand (above right), lifting with the legs, not the back.

This may come as a revelation, but work should not hurt.

"In all my years working with kids in special education, one day my union pointed out to me that back pain should not be part of my job," said Christina Hepburn, a paraprofessional in New York City schools. That was in the late 1990s, when Hepburn's local union, the United Federation of Teachers, undertook an awareness campaign to help paraprofessionals prevent workplace injuries, and clarify procedures to follow if they are injured. The UFT is the New York State United Teachers affiliate for New York City teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries and nurses.

"The union had to take this on because no one else seemed to care that people were getting hurt," said Maria Portalatin, who chairs the paraprofessional chapter for the UFT, which has been rigorously trying to get a safety standard to make schools more secure for staff and students. Its efforts have led to federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and state Department of Labor grants to train paraprofessionals on how to offer health and safety workshops.

Hepburn and UFT colleague Danny Tong presented their workshop on preventing workplace violence and injury at the American Federation of Teachers national conference for support staff in late April. The AFT is the national affiliate of NYSUT and the UFT.

Equipment, training

Chief among the reasons educators at all levels get hurt at work is poor equipment or inadequate training in the use of equipment, according to various studies from OSHA. For example, participants were not surprised to learn that women who work in elementary schools miss more work due to back pain than women in all other industries.

"Maybe it's because we sit in chairs that are too small for us," noted Nancy Peluso, a teaching assistant in Syracuse who was sitting in on one of the four ergonomics workshops offered at the national conference.

Experts say the most effective way to prevent back injuries is by following the ergonomics mantra — Design the job to fit the worker; Don't force the worker to fit the job.

Workers must learn to:

• Lift lighter loads. Make more trips. Use a cart. Stop to rest. Ask someone to help.
• Realize that most injuries happen when workers attempt to lift and twist.
• Ask for anti-fatigue matting and foot rests if they must stand on hard floors for extended periods of time. Hard floors are a major contributor to lower back pain.
• Wear flat-heeled shoes with shock-absorbing cushioned insoles and laces to help their back.

Food service workers, who are more at risk for cuts and burns, learned that left-handed people need to take extra care when working with slicing equipment as the safety features are designed for right-handed people. They learned the major causes of burns are steam, hot oil and moisture. Also, an oven can be just as dangerous when not in use, because most oven cleaners contain lye, an extremely caustic chemical.

The best protection from overexposure to oven cleaner vapors is to ventilate the work space by bringing in fans to circulate fresh air in and exhaust vapors out and wear goggles and gloves when applying oven cleaners.

For office workers, chairs should have five legs for more stability, and be adjustable at height and angles. Keyboard and mouse trays should be adjustable and wrist rests can keep pressure off wrists.

Above all, Hepburn said, staffers must report whenever they are injured.

"If you don't report it, it's not a problem your administrator knows to deal with, and you have no documentation if something happens again," Hepburn said.

Unions should document problems through member surveys and incident reports; provide health and safety seminars; and negotiate for more training, proper equipment and better work design.

— Betsy Sandberg