AS JOBS IN JOURNALISM GO, Grant McCool's was a plum assignment. Based in Hong Kong for the Reuters news service, McCool covered breaking news throughout east Asia, traveling to South Korea, China and Pakistan. But in 1989, after five hectic years, the native of Scotland was ready for a change. That's when his bosses transferred him to New York City to be an editor.
That's also when the trouble started. After typing on his computer keyboard for hours a day over several months, McCool developed excruciating pain in his hands; some mornings he would awake with his arms throbbing and burning. "The doctor told me to stop typing immediately," recalls McCool, 32. He hasn't written or edited a story on deadline since. Nor has he been able to clean house, carry heavy objects or play squash. He cannot even drive a car; controlling the steering wheel with his injured hands is impossible.
McCool suffers from a severe case of cumulative trauma disorder, a syndrome that results from overusing the muscles and tendons of the fingers, hands, arms and shoulders. The condition brings pain, numbness, weakness and sometimes longterm disability. Such problems, more commonly known as repetitive stress injuries (RSI), now strike an estimated 185,000 U.S. office and factory workers a year. The cases account for more than half the country's occupational illnesses, compared with about 20% a decade ago.
Typical victims are meat packers who slice scores of carcasses a day, or autoworkers who drive the same screws hour after hour. But a particularly fast-growing category of victims includes white-collar professional and clerical workers who spend their days pounding away at keyboards. An increasing number are responding in a white-collar way: with lawsuits. Hundreds of injured telephone reservationists, cashiers, word processors and journalists, McCool among them, are suing computer manufacturers, blaming the machines for their disabilities. IBM, Apple Computers, AT&T and Kodak's Atex- division, which produces a word-processing system designed for journalists, have all been named in the suits, which demand damages of up to a $1 million or more per victim. Last June, a U.S. district judge in Brooklyn lumped together more than 44 suits against 63 manufacturers in an attempt to arrive at some ground rules for dealing with such cases. More than 200 cases have been added since. Although the final outcome could take years, some liability experts predict that the ultimate payout on RSI suits could rival the $4 billion paid on asbestos-related claims.
Employers are quickly learning that they too must face up to the problem. Already, RSI costs about $7 billion a year in lost productivity and medical costs. Moreover, under the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which went into effect this summer, employers are now required to accommodate "reasonably" workers with physical impairments. Companies may have to transfer employees with RSI to less stressful jobs or give them special help. Increasingly, unions and other worker groups are demanding that companies provide better keyboards and office furniture and give employees more frequent breaks to reduce the risk of injury. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced plans to create national workplace standards for the prevention of RSI.