Repetitive Stress Injuries Up in the Workplace : Health: Other types of job-related ailments dip. AFL-CIO says report underscores need for regulation.

The number of workers afflicted by cumulative trauma disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome continued to shoot up last year even as the overall rate of injuries and illnesses on the job declined, according to a federal report released Friday.

In its annual survey of job-related injuries and illnesses, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 332,100 workers suffered CTDs in 1994. That is up 10% from the year before and ninefold over the last decade, making these disorders--also known as repetitive motion or repetitive stress injuries--the fastest-growing ailment in the workplace.

At the same time, the frequency of all types of nonfatal injuries and illnesses reported by employers edged down to a rate of 8.4 cases per 100 full-time workers last year. In 1993, the rate was 8.5 per 100 employees, and the figure has fluctuated from 7.9 to 8.9 over the last 10 years.

Peg Seminario, who heads the AFL-CIO’s Department of Occupational Safety and Health, called the report mixed news for workers. She said the most significant progress came in the construction industry, which reported its lowest injury rate in 20 years. At the same time, she said, “in many high-hazard industries like meatpacking, foundries and auto assembly, overall injury and illness rates remain unacceptably high--and they are increasing in some sectors.�

Seminario called the increase in CTDs--which afflict everyone from carpenters to supermarket cashiers--alarming. Alluding to the fierce political battles raging over efforts to curb these ailments, she said the new report underscores the need for regulation.

Over the last year, however, proposals to cut down on CTDs on the job have triggered intense opposition in Sacramento and Washington. Critics argue that too little is known about ways to prevent CTDs to justify requiring employers to embark on expensive preventive measures.

Under pressure from Republicans, the Clinton administration largely abandoned its efforts to develop an ergonomics program this year. Earlier this month, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board unveiled a vastly scaled-down proposal for curbing CTDs and related injuries.

The Cal/OSHA board killed its initial plan last year and appeared ready to drop the effort until a labor-backed group won a court order forcing the state to adopt a plan, which it is required to do by December 1996.

Among other new findings by the statistics bureau, the rate of serious nonfatal injuries fell to its lowest level in the 20-year history of the survey: 2.8 per 100 full-time workers. The rate among construction workers was 11.8 cases per 100 workers, compared with 12.2 in manufacturing.