L. L. Bean employs approximately 6,000 workers in the manufacture and mail order distribution of outdoors apparel and specialty products. Like many companies in the United States in the mid to late 1980's, L. L. Bean experienced a rising incidence of cumulative trauma disorders (CTD's), predominantly of the upper extremities and back. Our worksites had always been clean, well lit, and apparently "safe" - we had few traumatic injuries.