News Notes: Revised Ergonomics Regulations Pass

On April 17, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board voted to adopt rewritten and clarified workplace ergonomics regulations aimed at reducing repetitive motion injuries. The regulations probably won’t take effect before early July-assuming threatened lawsuits from employer and labor groups don’t cause further delays. We’ll have a full report in an upcoming issue. On a related note, the federal Bureau of Labor Stat- istics recently released figures on repetitive motion injuries, showing a 7% drop in the number reported in 1995. Despite the decline, however, these cases still account for 62% of all work-related illnesses.