Airport Screeners Have Highest Injury Rate

Airport Screeners Have Highest Injury Rate
The Associated Press

Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET March  03, 2004

WASHINGTON - Lifting and searching all those bags is
taking a toll on airport screeners, resulting in
injury and illness that is the highest among federal
employees.

Back strains are common. Other injuries include cuts
when a screener reaches into a bag to check for sharp
objects, or bumps, bruises and even broken bones after
suitcases fall on feet and hands, according to a
recently released federal report.

Laura Roler, a former screener supervisor, suffered a
debilitating back injury last year from lifting heavy
bags at Southwest Florida International Airport in
Fort Myers. There, the baggage-screening machines are
in front of the terminal, giving screeners less space
to work.

“Proper lifting techniques, proper ergonomics, are
pretty much impossible because of the small space,”
said Roler, 29.

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Mark
Hatfield said the agency knows there is a problem and
is taking steps to address it.

“We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars to
improve the physical systems, the mechanical systems,”
Hatfield said, explaining the problem is due partly to
lack of time to prepare work areas.

'A very physical and tough job'
The TSA had only a year to recruit and train tens of
thousands of people to screen passengers and baggage
at 429 commercial airports. Airports couldn’t be
renovated fast enough to properly install new security
equipment, so the large machines that screen luggage
for explosives were hastily placed in many airport
lobbies, requiring screeners to lift heavy bags from
the floor onto conveyor belts.

“It’s a very physical and tough job, and in many
situations we are still operating under
less-than-ideal conditions,” Hatfield said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said
in a recently released report that the injury and
illness rate for TSA workers was 19.4 percent during
the year ending Sept. 30. The average for federal
workers was 5.5 percent.

“That’s extraordinarily high,” said Dr. Laura Welch,
medical director for the Center to Protect Workers’
Rights, a Silver Spring, Md., organization that tries
to improve safety for construction workers. “It
suggests there’s a really big problem and they’d
better figure out what it is.”

The rate represents how many times the government
reimburses employees for on-the-job injuries or
illnesses, divided by the total work force, according
to OSHA spokesman Al Belsky. The TSA employed about
65,000 people last year, with the vast majority
working as screeners.

Next to the TSA, the Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center had the highest rate of injury, at 12.4
percent, followed by the Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services (11.5 percent), the National Park
Service (10.5 percent) and the Marshal Service (9.3
percent).

There are no comparable statistics on injury rates for
people who handle baggage for airlines. But a 2001
survey of 2,500 passenger service agents — most of
whom handle bags — done by the Communication Workers
of America found 31 percent said they’d been medically
diagnosed with a disorder of the neck, shoulder or
upper back.

Bill Lyons, an organizer for the American Federation
of Government Employees, said lugging heavy baggage is
the main reason so many TSA screeners are getting hurt
on the job.

“When you’re not trained properly in how to lift bags,
you’re going to hurt something,” said Lyons, whose
union represents TSA employees.

TSA screeners often complain they get the runaround
when they file for worker’s compensation, Lyons said.
The union printed and distributed 20,000 brochures for
TSA screeners on how to file claims, he said.

Hatfield said the TSA plans to train screeners on safe
lifting techniques and to develop more specific
standard operating procedures to avoid injury.


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