Creating A Culture Of Prevention In Occupational Safety And Health Practice: Perceived Body Discomfort In Two Sitting Positions

@#Prolonged sitting is one of the factors for back discomfort. Sitting in the same position for long periods of time is worse. This experimental based study was conducted to achieve three objectives. There were to 1) identify whether is there any differences between perceived body discomfort among respondents before and after upright sitting, 2) identify whether is there any differences between perceived body discomfort among respondents before and after slump sitting and 3) compare the level of perceived body discomfort among respondents after two sitting postures. Thirty young and healthy adults were recruited as study respondents. Each respondent was asked to sit in a posture either upright or slump for 30 minutes. Respondents were then rated their body discomfort using Borg CR-10 scale before and after sitting. Another sitting posture was carried out after one day interval. There is a significant difference between perceived body discomfort among respondents before and after upright and slump sitting. Body discomfort of upright sitting was shown significantly greater than slump sitting. Although, slump sitting caused less discomfort than upright, but it proven by previous studies did not provide benefit to occupational safety and health practice in preventing occupational health related disease.

Pen and paper based observational method to assess postural problems: a review

Posture is one of the most important factor that need to be considered in any postural analysis. Awkward, extreme, and repetitive postures can increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). As observational methods are more widely used than instrumentation-based methods to assess postural problems, this study reviews and assesses the scientific literature of observational methods and focused on pen and paper based specifically. In order to identify the published methods, a list of English or Malay articles dating as far back as 1990 was compiled from PubMed, Science Direct and Google Scholar. The keywords were ergo*, posture*, method*, observational*, postural problems*, pen and paper*, posture analysis*, indirect* and macro-ergo*. In addition, a secondary search was also performed using bibliography of retrieved articles so that additional papers for conducting review and evaluations can be collected. A total of 121 articles that assessed postural problems in working activities were found. However, after intensive screening process only 6 articles were selected to be further analyzed. Posture of upper arms/shoulder, lower arms/ elbow, wrist, neck, back/trunk and leg were highlighted in this study. The limitations and the strengths of the published pen and paper based observational method focusing on those postures were also discussed. The finding of this review will benefit researchers in the process of understanding unsafe posture in workplace. It could also provide to researcher on how to improve the current pen and paper based observational method for assessing postural problems.

A Case Study On Manual Handling At An Electronic Component Manufacturing Company

This An Ergonomic hazard often exists in any industry. However, majority of the employees are not aware of practicing good body posture until the MSDs symptoms become permanent and chronic. The main objective of this study is to determine the manual handling problems among workers at an electronic component manufacturing company. The scope of this study focused on the study entire body disorders among workers on electronic manufacturing company using the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). A cross sectional study involving observation of the workplace, the work task and the working environment, photographs and videos taken during the observation. Later, a survey questionnaire was given to the respondents to obtain their socio-demography information, work activity and health problems. Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) was conducted on all respondents to determined REBA scores in different work positions. The study was conducted at an electronic component manufacturing company located in Klang Valley, Selangor. A total of 124 workers were surveyed and REBA assessment was performed on 20 workers at Company X production area. It includes 5 categories of position at Company X, such as:loading steel bar into casing; pushing the steel bar, turning movement while adjusting the steel bar, adjusting steel bar into the loading area, unloading steel bar from casing into the machine. The study found that turning section has the highest MSDs problems regarding manual handling because majority of the respondents in the turning department felt the pain while performing their work. This is due to their job demand, which they need to handle with tools weighing from 200 to 400 kg. The REBA scores showed that17 out of 20 respondents performing turning operations, moving and pushing the steel bar recorded the highest score of 11 or more which are categorize in the very high risk group. The position of pushing and turning steel bar while moving the steel bar has higher risk that contributed to the ergonomics risk factor, which in-turn can contribute to Muscular Skeletal Disorders (MSDs). More detailed investigation and remedial measures should be taken immediately, especially for the workers performing the manual handlings activities.

Noise Monitoring Case Study: Liquefied Petroleum Gas Terminal

The main objective of the study is to determine the noise level emitted by the machinery and equipment used at a Liquefied Petroleum Gas in Melaka, Malaysia. The study also aims to determine the exposure level of noise to the employees. The machinery and equipment noise level was measured using a calibrated sound level meter. Noise level of each source was measured by pointing the sound level meter microphone at normal working distance to the source. Personal noise exposure was conducted at the shoulder of the personnel and as close as possible to the personnel’s ear. From a total of 154 noise sources points identified at three work areas surveyed, 122 points were above Action Level of 85 dBA of which 57 points had exceeded the Permissible Exposure Limit of 90 dBA. For the personal exposure monitoring, ten out of fourteen had exceeded the Action Level of 85 dBA for those working for 8 hours and 82 dBA for those working for twelve hours and one of them had exceeded the Permissible Exposure Limit of 87 dBA for those working for twelve hours. The monitored personnel have exceeded the Maximum Level and the Peak Level limit of 115 dBA and 140 dB respectively. From the study, it is concluded that further noise monitoring is needed especially when there are changes to the work process and equipment used. Also the requirement to notify the selected workers on the personal noise exposure result, actions to reduce noise level at the workplace through engineering control methods and administrative controls.

Tabialis Anterior Muscle Contraction On Driver’s Knee Angle Posture Less Than 101º For Foot Pressing And Releasing An Automotive Pedal

Proper driving requires a proper posture to bring comfort to drivers. A problem that commonly exists in driving is incorrect driving posture which can cause discomfort to the driver, especially when interacting with automotive pedals. Research on contraction of tibialis anterior (TA) muscle on driver's posture based on the knee angle less than 101º in a position of pressing and releasing a pedal was conducted to investigate and overcome this problem. This is a field experiment study and surface electromyography (sEMG) is used in collecting data on the TA muscle. The procedure of collecting data on the TA muscle before and after experiments follows the Surface ElectroMyoGraphy for the Non-Invasive Assessment of Muscles (SENIAM) recommendations. The result of the experiment shows that there is a strong negative relationship between driver's postures in nature based on the angle of the knee with TA muscle contractions, where the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) is - .993. While the temporal analysis measurements based on Maximum Voluntary Isometric Contraction (MVIC) 60% in a position of releasing a pedal exceeding rms µV 39.38, are 39.71 and 40.25 respectively. On the other hand, MVIC 2% rms µV values: 1.19 and 1.2 are obtained in the position of pressing the pedal. The knee angle with TA muscle contractions is significant [F (1, 10) = 660, p<.05] contributing 98.5% variance (R2 = .985) in the driver's posture. A linear equations model has been developed to clearly illustrate the result. In conclusion, when the knee angle of the driver's posture is increased, the TA muscle contraction is decreased. The increase in the knee angle will directly provide comfort to the driver while interacting with the pedal; and this is due to the reduction of TA muscle contractions.