Messenger Health and Safety
Submitted on Mon, 06/27/2005 - 8:59am
Fellow workers,
Below is the text of a short paper that I wrote on IHS issues for bicycle messengers. With the demise of the AFL's health and safety department, it resolves on us to once again pick up where they are falling behind. With that idea in mind, I present the first in what I hope to make a series of articles about Health & Safety in active IWW campaigns. It is a short paper on Industrial Health and Safety issues for one of the most dangerous jobs being performed every day in our cities, the bicycle messenger. I realize on rereading it that I neglected to write about shoulder injuries from heavy bags, which would of course be an issue under the ergonomics section and is probably quite similar to the high injury rate for mail carriers that use shoulder bags.
I would like to write more articles like this, so if you have a particularly hazardous job or an interesting environmental, health, or safety issue, contact me and I'll see what I can do. Especially if you think that it will be useful in your organizing.
solidarity,
greg, chicago GMB
-------------------------------------------------------------
Health and Safety
Issues for Bicycle
Messengers
I.Introduction
The bike messenger is a ubiqitous figure, seen in varying numbers in most major cities around the globe. “[T]here were 138,000 messengers [in the U.S.] in 1996, 120,000 messengers in 1998, 141,000 messengers in 2000 ...[and t]he most recent numbers in the OOH (for 2002) put the number of messengers at 132,000...In the first half of 2004 the industry added 21,000 jobs and in January of this year the messenger industry added about 17,000 jobs (after losing 9,000 in December due to seasonality.)” (1) They have confronted the fax machine and survived, and are still riding in spite of the internet revolution, with projections of job growth through 2012(1).
II.Injuries
Danger to messengers from bicycle-car accidents is very real, and (contrary to what drivers might think) accidents between cars and bicycles most often take place in the area that the bicyclist is intended to occupy on the roadway—either a designated bike lane or a “wide curb lane” that bicycles share with parked cars. A study of bicycle-car interactions commissioned by the US Department of Transportation shows that, “conflicts [between bikes and motor vehicles] pertained to motor vehicles entering or exiting onstreet parking..., parking or stopping in the bicycle facilities to let a passenger enter or exit the vehicle, pulling across the [bike lane] into an intersecting street or driveway...illegal parking in the BL and “other” actions such as a driver or passenger entering/exiting a parked or stopped vehicle...crowding the [bike lane]...and turning right in front of a bicyclist after overtaking.”(2)
When accidents occur, they are more often the fault of the motor vehicle than the bicylist. Out of 17 accidents observed in the DOT study, “if “fault” had been assigned, 11 would have been the fault of the motorist and 6 the fault of the bicyclist. The motorist turned right soon after overtaking the bicyclist in six of the conflicts, pulled from a driveway to the street in three conflicts, and was involved in a parking situation in the other two cases. The bicyclist turned or swerved across a lane of traffic in three conflicts, disobeyed a traffic signal in two cases, and shifted in front of a motor vehicle in the process of avoiding rough pavement in the other.”(2)
The three identified highest risk factors from traffic for bicyclists were identified as
1.the presence of parked motor vehicles in the bike lane or wide curb lane.
2.the presence of driveways or intersecting streets.
3.the presense of additional lanes at intersections that resulted in a narrowing of the bike lane.(2)
As for the types of injuries sustained, these can be from both repetetive use and from traumatic injury. Injuries from repetetive use, or lots of time riding, can include musculoskeletal complaints, perineal and genital complaints, and compression neuropathies (3). The rate of severe injury from accidents in urban bicyclists has been estimated to be 37.4 per 100,000 (4), and can include skull fracture; concussion; brain contusion; intracranial hemorrhage; facial contusions and fractures; dental fractures; corneal foreign bodies; musculoskeletal fractures, dislocations, and sprains; rib fractures; parenchymal lung injury; splenic rupture; hepatic laceration; renal contusion; pancreatic trauma; vascular perforation; small or large bowel contusion; abdominal rupture; traumatic hernia; urethral and vulval trauma; rectal trauma; pelvic fractures; and skin abrasions, lacerations, and contusions (3). “Transport accidents and in particular bicycle accidents [have been shown] to be major determinants” in a 2.5% incidence rate for metacarpal fractures based on a metastudy of 3858 metacarpal fractures in a series of 235,427 patients (5). Of bicyclists hospitalized for non-lethal injury from accidents, “4% suffered from severe cognitive and behavioural changes or sense impairment and of adult inpatients 3% suffered from permanent work disability.”(6) A study of messengers in Boston found an annual incidence rate of 47 days /100 messengers for days lost from work due to injury, where “[b]one fractures accounted for the most days lost from work, followed by dislocations, sprains, and strains”
While injuries can happen due to a variety of circumstances, more than 90% of fatalities to cyclists result from collision with another vehicle, and 53% of those casualties occur in urban areas(7).
III.Inhalation/Exposure
Another area of real concern for bicycle messengers is exposure to airborne contamination in their workplace. Theirs is not a physically enclosed space, but an urban streetscape that, for more and more cities, has increasing problems with smog, ozone, and airborne particulate matter from diesel vehicle exhaust. Not only are messengers who have grown up in an urban setting subject to the hazards of childhood inhalation exposure that all urban children face, they also are subject to increased exposure as adults because they share risk factors with children, in that they “spend more time outdoors, breathe faster and engage in vigorous physical activity” (8). In fact, they work in an environment that has especially high risk for inhalation exposure because not only do they spend their day in the street, but the also often have to enter buildings in alleys and at loading docks where trucks are often idling (9).
A study done by a Toronto bike messenger coalition says,
“Most bike couriers spend 7 to 9 hours each day outdoors working with about 4 to 5 hours per day in traffic . Our lungs are not more than about 10 feet from an exhaust pipe for most of the day. It is known that the closer an individual is to the source of pollution the greater their exposure to that pollution. All messengers are familiar with the taste, smell, and choking of traffic exhaust that is spewed directly into our lungs.
Messengers are outside at the time of day that is most dangerous, when the air quality is the worst. Much of the courier work involves a high level of physical exertion that requires a higher, more intense rate of breathing and a greater intake of air. As a result bike messengers receive higher doses of pollution at greater concentrations and frequency.
Bicycle couriers work all day, year round in the midst of smog. Our lungs have minimal opportunity to recover from the effects of polluted air. We are chronically exposed to high doses of dangerously polluted air for long term, extended periods of time.” (8)
Reviews of epidemiological studies has shown links between daily exposure to inhaled “ambient particulate matter”—typically tiny particles less than 10 mm (PM10) and less than 2.5 mm (PM2.5) (8)—from vehicle exhaust and increased incidence rates for asthma, respiratory infection, respiratory disease requiring hospitalization, allergies, decreased pulmonary function, and even premature mortality (10). Another review cites evidence for decreased quality of life, exacerbation of asthma, infections, difficulty breathing, increased heart attacks, cancer, inhibited growth of lung tissue, destruction of lung tissue, heart disease, hypertension, a negative effect on brain cells and neurofunction, early death, and birth defects as negative consequences of short- and long-term exposure to diesel exhaust fumes (11).
The full mechanism by which this occurs is not known, but research has shown a probable mechanism through which exhaust fumes act on the human respiratory system, by stimulation of IL-8 gene transcription and subsequent increased IL-8 and GRO-[alpha] protein expression in bronchial tissue (12). This process develops into an acute inflammatory response, an increase in histamine and fibronectin levels, and increased leukocyte migration into the bronchial tissue (13).
IV.Ergonomics
The proposed-but-defeated-by-lobbyists Federal ergonomics standards recognize the danger to bicyclists of the onset of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) from compression of an ulnar nerve branch in the palm from prolonged gripping of bicycle handlebar grips (14). There are a number of other ergonomic factors to be aware of for bicycle messengers including frame size, saddle height, saddle fore/aft position, saddle tilt angle, handlebar height, reach/extension, width of handlebar, and position of the foot on the pedal (3).
V.“Independent Contracting”
One of the most serious health and safety issues facing messengers is the improper reclassification of messenger jobs as “independent contracting” and subsequent cutting of workers' compensation, health benefits, and Social Security payments. Often, employers seeking to maximize their profits at the expense of the workers force their reclassified workers to join pay-to-work schemes such as NICA (the National Independent Contractors Association) which force messengers to pay a weekly “membership fee” in order to continue working and receive a promise of insurance coverage that rarely materializes (15)(9). With regard to the costs and benefits of working as a bike messenger, a researcher at the Cardiff University School of Social Science says that “[h]iring workers to undertake a particularly hazardous job with very low wages and very few employment rights - accentuated by the employer's lack of responsibility for the people that they employ by way of hiring on a sub-contract basis, seems to benefit the employer alone.”(16)
References
1 Hendry J. (2005). The end of bike messengers? Email posting to DC couriers [messengers] listserv May 6, 2005 2:05:17 PM CDT.
2 Hunter WW, Stewart JR, Stutts JC, Huang HH, and Pein WE. (1999). A Comparative Analysis of Bicycle Lanes Versus Wide Curb Lanes: Final Report. Office of Safety and Traffic Operations Research & Development. Federal Highway Administration. FHWA-RD-99-034.
3 Thompson MJ & Rivara MD (2001). Bicycle-Related Injuries. Am Fam Physician 63, 2007-14, 2017-8.
4 Durkin MS, Laracue D, Lubman I & Barlow B (1999). Epidemiology and prevention of traffic injuries to urban children and adolescents. Pediatrics 103, 74.
5 de Jonge JJ, Kingma J, van der Lei B & Klasen HJ (1994). Fractures of the metacarpals. A retrospective analysis of incidence and aetiology and a review of the English-language literature. Injury 25(6), 365-369.
6 Olkkonen S, Lahdenranta U, Slatis P, Honkanen R. (1993). Bicycle accidents often cause disability--an analysis of medical and social consequences of nonfatal bicycle accidents. Scand J Soc Med 21(2), 98-106.
7 Hamilton RJ and Stott JRR (2004). Cycling: the risks. Trauma 6, 161-168.
8 Toronto Hoof and Cycle Courier Coalition (1999). Choking Us to Death: The Air Pollution Crisis and Its Effects on Bicycle Couriers. Joe Hendry (Ed.). http://www.messmedia.org/messville/smog.html
9 Ehrendreich, G. (2005). Personal conversations and observation.
10 Dockery DW and Pope CA (1994). Acute respiratory effects of particulate air pollution. Annu. Rev. Public Health 15, 107–132.
11 Derlet RW, M.D. (2005). The Effects of Diesel Exhaust Emissions On Cyclists. http://www.sacbike.org/sacbiking/Diesel.htm
12 Salvi SS, Nordenhall C, Blomberg A, Rudell B, Pourazar J, Kelly FJ, Wilson S, Sandström T, Holgate ST and Frew AJ. (2000). Acute Exposure to Diesel Exhaust Increases IL-8 and GRO-[alpha] Production in Healthy Human Airways. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 161, 550–557.
13 Salvi S, Blomberg A, Rudell B, Kelly FJ, Sandstrom T, Holgate ST and Frew AJ. (1999). Acute inflammatory responses in the airways and peripheral blood after short-term exposure to diesel exhaust in healthy human volunteers. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 159, 702–709.
14 OSHA (1999). Ergonomics Program--Proposed Rules. Fed Register #: 64:65768-66078
15 The Stop NICA! Committee (2005). http:\\www.stopnica.org
16 Fincham B. (2004). Bicycle Couriers in the 'New' Economy. Working Paper Series Paper 46. School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University . ISBN: 1 904815 06 5