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We present hospital emergency room data on 154 injuries of carpenters and laborers working for one contractor on one large project over four years. This contractor was in charge of concrete form construction, a task that entails significant ergonomic risks. The carpenters working for this contractor had a higher percentage of injuries diagnosed as strains and sprains, while the laborers had more injuries from “struck-by/struck-against” than other crafts. We will discuss possible strategies to decrease ergonomic hazards and injuries in form construction

Investigation of this outbreak raises some important points for future research. Although for various reasons the case ascertainment for MCS was not complete, the three MCS patients described here all had preexisting conditions that may have put them at risk. In addition, one person among the 20 described had chronic fatigue syndrome but did not develop MCS. Many of the persons described here continue to have ongoing complaints that are not MCS. Significant exacerbation of preexisting allergic disease and new onset of asthma occurred among those patients. As a group, they did not recover completely after the outbreak; several are no longer working in the building but in alternative work spaces. An important distinction should be made between individuals who met the definition used here for MCS and others who had significant exacerbation of some better-defined illness brought on by building conditions. New onset of MCS was a partial but not complete explanation of the clinical course for this group of 20 persons.