Bob Jones, the best local columnist at the Los Angeles Times, split on vacation Thursday. It has become, quite literally, too painful to work.
A few days earlier, Jones made an unusual admission to readers of the nation`s largest general-interest daily newspaper: The column they were reading would be his last for an indefinite period because ”a new form of industrial injury ravages the population, and I`ve got it.”
Jones, 46, is a victim of what New York Times health reporter Jane Brody suggests is an epidemic of motion-related, at times crippling, nerve injuries to hands and arms of white-collar workers. Once the province of industrial workers, such as packinghouse employees, the maladies affect huge numbers of office workers who use computers, and may constitute 30 to 40 percent of worker`s compensation claims in some states.
The undersides of his arms began burning in 1985, he said. He had periods without pain, but in the last several years it ”became seamless.” He tried every possible therapy: every pill, exercise program, ultrasound, topical ointments, everything. ”Nothing worked.”
”If this disease was a matter of just enduring pain when I typed, that would be one thing. But I can`t garden, cook, play sports, pick up and play with my 11-month-old son when I want. It`s chopping off parts of my life. The only option was to stop,” the well-regarded former national correspondent and environmental reporter explained in a conversation in Los Angeles.
The disease goes by different names, usually repetitive strain injury or cumulative trauma disorder. A new one has come via the World Health Organization: work-related musculoskeletal disorders. A related illness is carpal tunnel syndrome.
At Jones` office, the problem can be traced to the 1983 introduction of electronic editing computers that the paper helped design. Quickly, there were complaints of injuries to necks, wrists, shoulders and arms. They spread to other departments using computers.
Ultimately, task forces were formed, and the Times spent what William Sperry, the paper`s safety and environmental affairs manager, estimates to be $1.5 million for new, adjustable work stations; five types of ergonomically designed chairs; thinner keyboards softer to the touch; wrist and foot rests; and informational booklets and videos.
Sperry says that since 1983, more than 400 employees have gone to the medical department with problems. Ninety percent have been resolved quickly, often after a recommendation to vary tasks or take off a day or two. Ten percent have needed more extensive medical treatment, and about 30 employees have suffered permanent partial disability, with five undergoing surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome.
The paper did not spend big bucks out of pure beneficence. It is self-insured for worker`s compensation. Injuries ”take money off the bottom line,” Sperry says.
But there are the realities of no surefire medical cure and the expense of doing anything. Managements may rationalize inaction, especially when cutting back and demanding greater productivity.
But that may compound the problem. Cutbacks mean fewer people doing more work under possibly more stressful conditions. The tragic irony of these injuries may be that it`s the best and most productive workers who are at greatest risk.
Other media enterprises report possibly worrisome injury rates among those who use computers, including at The New York Times, Reuters and Newsday (owned by the L.A. Times` parent, Times Mirror). The Chicago Tribune knows of few problems, says a spokesman. A Milwaukee consultant has been hired to develop an educational program for Tribune supervisors.
But it`s possible workers at the Tribune and elsewhere suffer in silence. I know several colleagues with such problems who have toiled with braces on wrists and hands but haven`t complained to the company. Jobs are at a premium. Some may be scared of being tagged malingerers.
Sperry thinks the problem ”transcends any one type of keyboard.”
Another Times executive believes that many firms have similar problems but are ”burying their heads in the sand.”
Last year, the American Newspaper Publishers Association (now the American Newspaper Association) conceded that repetitive strain injuries are of serious concern. Though the group had largely denied a problem previously, according to VDT News, a computer newsletter, the association urged members to review equipment design and encourage workers to report problems. It`s funding a study on early detection by the University of Iowa College of Medicine.
There are still working wounded at the L.A. Times: people with splints, even a copy editor who now has such poor circulation (her fingers are a whitish purple) that she has an electric heating pad strapped around her shoulders.
Columnist Jones, who says that at times his arms ”feel like raw flesh,” will take two or three weeks off.
He`s not sure what he`ll do then, other than something less intense, maybe editing magazine articles. He`s convinced that a long-term disability leave would be counterproductive, perhaps prompting a depression not conducive to healing.
”But there`s no guarantee of recovery,” he said last week. ”That`s what`s terrifying. It`s left me in a period of free fall. I`m crippled.”
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Not everybody at the Los Angeles Times was susceptible to work-related injuries at their computers last week. The paper had not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but seven, count `em, seven reporters in Arkansas looking into Bill Clinton.
If Motel 6, Red Roof and Holiday Inns are smart, they`ll start offering a group media rate throughout Arkansas. Along with a complimentary chocolate on the pillow, they could offer that May Playboy with the former Miss Arkansas; a marijuana joint you need not inhale; and a complimentary compact disc of Gennifer Flowers` greatest lounge hits, including, I presume, her rendition of ”Feelings.”
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A Deep Hollywood Throat (a director) offers the following important post- Oscar claim about friend Jack Palance, who was named best supporting actor for ”City Slickers”: Palance hasn`t seen the movie yet.
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Fashion and food-conscious L.A. Style magazine offers an adjunct to the national debate over politically correct speech. We now have the PC restaurant.
It quotes the press release for a new West Hollywood bistro, Cicada, that heralds its ”naturalistic/lite cuisine”; organic fertilizer used to grow its produce; ”salad bowls made from the limbs of olive trees”; and ”recycled paper/cards and environmentally pure cleansers.”
According to the magazine, the food, including a mushy-lobster-and-leek ravioli ($14), ain`t so hot.
But who cares, when you can avoid liberal friends tagging you a preservative-loving, chemical-shilling, fat-inducing, polluting scum?
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I thought Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert deserved an Emmy last year for exhibiting grace under humiliating pressure during an appearance with Gene Siskel, columnist for the Tribune, on New York radio shock-jock Howard Stern`s syndicated TV show. Stern vividly questioned Ebert`s sexuality and his being engaged to a black woman.
Well, give Ebert an early 1992 nomination for his hourlong, post-Oscar-show appearance on ABC`s Los Angeles TV station, KABC.
After he whipped off his Sun-Times story and did an on-camera quickie for Chicago`s WLS-Ch. 7, he co-hosted a show on KABC that included live switches to Oscar parties. One KABC reporter asked Palance how he pronounced his name, prompting Palance to look at him as if he were a wad of gum caught on his shoe, while another reporter gushed to best supporting actress winner Mercedes Ruehl, ”We`re very proud of you!”
Well, Ebert was teamed not just with KABC`s Tawny Little, a former beauty queen who apparently did not score close to a 1600 on her SAT`s, but also Mr. Blackwell, the trash-and-burn fashion critic.
According to Blackwell, Liza Minnelli ”looked terrific”; Geena Davis was ”terrible from the waist down . . . like a can-can dancer who couldn`t get a job”; Whoopi Goldberg was ”a total tragedy”; and Juliette (”Cape Fear”) Lewis` dress ”looks like it was bought in a thrift shop.”
The surprisingly well-coiffed Ebert gently demurred on several occasions with Blackwell, along with offering movie comments and a ”This, too, will pass” look.
Which, fortunately, it did.
