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April 19, 2000 10:42 AM, EDT

WASHINGTON — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration underestimates the negative effects that its ergonomic rules would have on trucking, according to trucking’s largest lobbying group.

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An American Trucking Associations official presented trucking’s position during an April 7 hearing, one of a long series of OSHA-sponsored hearings that started in March. The agency has estimated that its regulatory proposal would prevent 3 million musculoskeletal injuries, mostly related to lifting and repetitive motion, in American work places over the next 10 years.

Also at issue during the hearing was whether the railroad industry would be subject to the new federal regulations.

ATA argued that trucking should not be covered by OSHA’s ergonomics rules because it operates under unique conditions. Moreover, trucking has already addressed many of the problems, ATA told the agency panel.

For the full story, see the Apr. 17 print edition of Transport Topics. .