Eighteen new apprentice carpenters received sixteen hours of ergonomics awareness education as a part of their regular apprenticeship training during 1994 and 1995. An equal number of apprentices received no training but served as controls. The training took place in the Southwest Ohio District Council of Carpenters's Joint Apprenticeship and Training School. The curriculum was designed to be ''learner-centered.'' Instruction included short lectures presented by a journeyman carpenter and emphasized participatory activities in the school's carpentry shop. Ongoing program evaluation assessed trainees' reactions to the content and structure of the curriculum and its influence on their behavior. Trainees and controls completed brief quizzes on ergonomic knowledge. Hands-on exercises enabled trainees to apply recently acquired ergonomic knowledge in the school's carpentry shop. Trainees scored significantly higher on one-half of the post-session quizzes and the comprehensive test. Trainees preferred participatory teaching methods, especially those using redesigned tools (93%) and evaluating ergonomic risks (86%);
INTRODUCTIONConstruction workers labor in a constantly changing social and physical environment. The job site is constantly changing as members of each craft complete their tasks and move to the next site or unemployment line. Workers in each craft are exposed to multiple ergonomic risk factors, such as awkward working postures, material handling, soft tissue contact stressors, varying outdoor temperatures, noise, and whole-body and/or segmental vibration. The frequency and duration of exposure to various stressors may also be increasing due to economic and technological changes in the industry [Sobel, 199].General contractors' use of subcontractors to reduce construction costs has increased. Subcontractors competitively bid for work on a construction project and this has resulted in their ''tendency to specialize in whatever they are able to estimate more accurately, do quickly, and afford specialized tools for'' [Reckman, 1979]. Carpenters working for a specialty subcontractor work on specific structural components, such as ceiling systems, walls, or flooring. This division of labor often extends into the subcontractor's workforce where workers further specialize in some aspect of the specialty, such as ''shooting wires'' for ceiling systems or ''hanging'' sheets of drywall. This specialization requires carpenters to perform more routine or repetitive tasks. Studies show that carpenters' work can result in increased back, neck and shoulder problems and traumatic knee disease [Damlund et al., 1986;Tola et al., 1988;Thun et al., 1987]. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMD) have been associated with the use of tools, such as overhead bolt pistols, carpet knee-kickers, and straight-handled claw hammers [Wos et al., 1992;Bhattacharya et al., 1986;Knowlton and Gilbert, 1983]. Schneider and Susi [1994] have described carpenters' potential ergonomic risks when building concrete forms and scaffolds, instal...
