The OSH Act authorizes WRP. WRP is authorized by the OSH Act as necessary to protect the health of employees suffering from MSDs. Section 6(b)(5) of the OSH Act directs OSHA to adopt the health standard that "most adequately assures, to the extent feasible, on the basis of the best available evidence, that no employee will suffer material impairment of health or functional capacity" if exposed to a hazard over a working lifetime. 29 U.S.C. 655(b)(5). Section 3(8) of the OSH Act explains that an "occupational health and safety standard [requires] the adoption or use of one or more practices, means, methods, operations, or processes, reasonably necessary or appropriate to provide safe or healthful employment and places of employment." 29 U.S.C. 652(8). The statutory provisions give OSHA broad authority to require employers to implement practices that are reasonably necessary and appropriate to provide safe and healthful work environments. See United Steelworkers of America v. Marshall (Lead), 647 F.2d 1189, 1230 (D.C. Cir. 1980), cert. denied, 453 U.S. 913 (1981) ("A number of terms of the statute give OSHA almost unlimited discretion to devise means to achieve the congressionally mandated goal."). As discussed in greater detail below, WRP furthers OSHA's statutory mandate to protect the health of workers. By providing employees with economic protection if they are placed on temporary work restrictions, WRP encourages employee participation in MSD management and increases early reporting of MSDs. This prevents injured employees from suffering more severe injury, including permanent disability. This also helps to protect other employees in the same jobs by ensuring that MSD hazards are identified and controlled before other employees become injured.
b. Duration. As with intensity, duration is often the measure of high and low exposure in studies cited above. Much epidemiologic research measures the hours of exposure and has documented a dose-response relationship between duration and MSD outcomes. For example, Brisson et al. (1989, Ex. 26-937) found that the length of exposure to piecework in the garment industry was associated with increased MSD levels. de Krom et al. (1990, Ex. 26-102) found that hours of exposure increased the association of awkward, flexed wrist postures with CTS. Hagberg et al. (1990, Ex. 26-1317) demonstrated a duration/MSD association for vibration exposure. Kourinka and Forcier (1995, Ex. 26-432) summarize a collection of similar studies, all of which find that length of exposure, either per day or over a lifetime, increases the size of the association between exposure and work-related MSD outcome.
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