The Revised 2018 ACGIH Threshold Limit Value for Hand Activity: Comparison to the 2001 ACGIH TLV for the Prevention of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bao S ; Dale, Ann M. ; Evanoff BA ; Harris C ; Hegmann KT ; Kapellusch J ; Meyers, Alysha R. ; Rempel D ; Yung M
• Description:
  ACGIH(R) develops voluntary workplace exposure indices, thresholds, and limits to prevent injuries due to biomechanical exposures. In 2001, a threshold limit value (TLV(R)) for Hand Activity was adopted to prevent MSD among workers performing repetitive single task jobs (ACGIH, 2001). Recent studies examined the risk of new cases of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) for exposures above and below the 2001 TLV (Bonfiglioli et al., 2013; Kapellusch et al., 2014) and concluded that it was not sufficiently protective of workers, leading to a revision of thresholds (Rempel, 2018). We will summarize the effect of applying the 2018 TLV(R) versus the 2001 TLV(R) to data from an occupational cohort study. For each worker, we used the 2018 TLV(R) equations to categorize workers into: (1) below the Action Limit (AL), (2) between AL and TLV, and (3) above TLV and compared them to 2001 limits. The 2018 TLV(R) might have prevented 28% of CTS cases that occurred below the 2001 AL. Similarly, 26% of workers classified as below TLV by the 2001 thresholds would have been classified as above TLV by the 2018 threshold and might also have been prevented. The 2018 TLV(R) is demonstrated to improve the protection of workers who perform hand intensive tasks from risk of CTS. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Biomechanical Phenomena Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Biomechanics Carpal Tunnel Syndrome CTS Hand Injuries Injury Prevention MSD Musculoskeletal Disorders Threshold Limit Values TLV
• Publisher:
  International Commission on Occupational Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  69
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20063083
• Citation:
  10th International Scientific Conference on Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (PREMUS 2019): From research to evidence based sustainable interventions and practices, September 2-5, 2019, Bologna, Italy. Rome, Italy: International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), 2019 Sep; :69
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  10th International Scientific Conference on Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (PREMUS 2019): From research to evidence based sustainable interventions and practices, September 2-5, 2019, Bologna, Italy
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8c7f0e4343632ceb0b4cbb4a1d2fa6c5123ebb8cb030f3b55f46c3d5a20857b5c2b1acaecf7e82a6d09f8300e6230820e88383e3d713c518a96adf880fc0b4c1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226210/cdc_226210_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 104.06 KB ]