AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE 53:1240–1241 (2010) Commentary My Dogs Are Barking—Foot and Ankle Pain in Factory Workers Franklin E. Mirer, PhD Ã ‘‘Risk Factors for Foot and Ankle Disorders among Assembly Plant Workers’’ in this issue (AJIM, this issue) directly answers a question raised by actual United Auto Workers (UAW) members—does working on your feet all day cause foot pain? The publication also provides a platform for discussion of methods and context issues for ergonomics research. The investigators from the University of Michigan, with labor-management cooperation, deployed a symptom questionnaire (including job content), a focal physical examination, and work exposure assessment based on a job analysis that focused on lower body posture, including instrumental measurements. Subjects included hourly and salaried workers. The investigators found that 52% of the cohort suffered symptoms of foot/ankle pain, while 24% of the cohort met the medical examination case definition of foot/ankle disorder with 10% defined as new cases. By job classification, 63% of machinists (actually machine operators, who tend machines and walk around much of the day) suffered symptoms, and 35% met the case definition. Skilled trades workers enjoyed a better experience of 38% symptoms and 18% defined cases, or about a 50% decrease in prevalence compared to machinists. Assembly workers, who in this facility enjoyed sit–stand work stations, fell in between. The investigators determined that there was a 20% increase in risk for each additional 48 min (10% of the work day) spent walking. These findings may appear pedestrian but have imme- diate practical importance. There is growing fashion among industrial engineers of removing all the seating for assembly workers to improve productivity. Seating—as an ergonomic solution—has been an issue in national health and safety negotiations. These data may inform such discussions. Lower extremity MSD’s are virtually never recorded on the OSHA 300 injury illness log in any factory, so this strong evidence that any occupational injury record devoid such cases is unlikely to be accurate. In addition, the publication raises both methods and context issues. Contextually, this project arises from a near 30-year program of occupational health and safety research directed by joint labor management national committees on health and safety negotiated between the UAW and the American nameplate auto companies [Mirer, 1989, 2003]. Much of this research was paid for by cents per hour health and safety funds. This research program was spurred, starting in 1982, by concerns for health effects of chemical exposures at work, but quickly added ergonomics research. The University of Michigan Center for Ergonomics has led much of the ergonomics work, both with joint funding and with external and management funding. These unique structures are threatened by the erosion of the American nameplate companies under the commercial onslaught by offshore headquartered enterprises which do not employ labor management cooperation. The strata of processes and job assignments within the motor vehicle industry should inform interpretation of results. Vehicle assembly facilities—the iconic assembly line—are materially different from the manufacture of components and parts, as in the engine plant that was the object of this study. Assemblers in a vehicle assembly plant are more numerous, stand, walk, and sidestep for virtually the entire day, frequently stoop, squat and reach, and would likely suffer a greater prevalence of these disorders, and would also lead to greater facility-wide prevalence. Not all ‘‘auto workers’’ share the same exposures. Job title also conveys important information about exposures—a spectrum of physical, chemical, and work ß 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Hunter Urban Public Health Program, CUNY School of Public Health, City University of New York, New York, New York *Correspondence to: Dr. Franklin E. Mirer, Hunter Urban Public Health Program, CUNY School of Public Health, City University of New York, 425 E. 25 Street, New York, NY 10010. E-mail: fmirer@hunter.cuny.edu Accepted 21 May 2010 DOI 10.1002/ajim.20872. Published online 6 July 2010 Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).