Repetitive stress injuries

I am interested in knowing whether any book treatment staff in your
institutions have developed repetitive motion syndrome or other
similar maladies as a result of their repair work.  E.g. lifting
books from shelves in holding areas incorrectly causing shoulder
pain or shoulder and neck pain from standing over the bench while
doing the work or wrist problems due to the angle at which tools are
held for long periods of time.  (Part of the cause of some of these
problems is the height of the person in relation to a stationary
height of the workbench, especially when standing. Most of our staff
do not use the stools we provide but prefer to stand for much of
their work.)  We have had two cases of it in our lab over the past
two years and I wonder whether the staff of other conservation
programs have had similar experiences.  Certainly it is not
something I would have associated with book repair until recently.
For our folks who have developed the symptoms we have made all
necessary accommodations so that they can continue working with
reduced pain and increased comfort.

    **** Moderator's comments: See the Health Safety page in
    Conservation OnLine
    <URL:http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/health/> where
    you'll find some material, principally Chris Stavroudis's
    excellent articles in the WAAC Newsletter

I welcome your observations.  Thank you.

Robert J. Milevski
Preservation Librarian
Princeton University Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544
609-258-5591
Fax:  609-258-4105

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:83
                  Distributed: Friday, April 30, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-83-015
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