ABSTRACT
COVID-19 Pandemic made working from home a necessity for IT professionals and computer users. Prolong working hours in confined or awkward posture leads to musculoskeletal injuries. The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of work-related Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDS) and ergonomic limitations of computer users from IT background working from home due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Eighteen subjects from IT Industry between 25 and 35 years were randomly selected for this study. A Workstation checklist and a Modified Nordic Questionnaire was used to assess the present workplace at home and prevalence of discomfort or pain. The postural analysis was performed using the standardised protocol of Rapid upper limb assessment (RULA). The study indicated that IT professionals working from home had an increased likelihood of developing work-related musculoskeletal injury primarily in neck, Shoulder, wrist, elbow and lower back. About 49% of the subjects were respondent to discomfort or pain. 28% of the subject felt moderate low back pain and 44% experienced mild low back pain, 50% were having neck discomfort and 44% underwent both. RULA scores of IT professionals indicated the risk of development of musculoskeletal injury. IT was also revealed that 65% of the subjects were unaware of work ergonomics and 17% of subjects followed work ergonomics. It may be concluded that lower back discomfort and pain in upper extremities are the major health issues, occurred prevalently among the IT professional during working from home without an ergonomic workplace during COVID 19. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Combating the COVID-19 pandemic has raised the demand for and disposal of personal protective equipment in the United States. This work proposes a novel waste personal protective equipment processing system that enables energy recovery through producing renewable fuels and other basic chemicals. Exergy analysis and environmental assessment through a detailed life cycle assessment approach are performed to evaluate the energy and environmental sustainability of the processing system. Given the environmental advantages in reducing 35.42% of total greenhouse gas emissions from the conventional incineration and 43.50% of total fossil fuel use from landfilling processes, the optimal number, sizes, and locations of establishing facilities within the proposed personal protective equipment processing system in New York State are then determined by an optimization-based site selection methodology, proposing to build two pre-processing facilities in New York County and Suffolk County and one integrated fast pyrolysis plant in Rockland County. Their optimal annual treatment capacities are 1,708 t/y, 8,000 t/y, and 9,028 t/y. The proposed optimal personal protective equipment processing system reduces 31.5% of total fossil fuel use and 35.04% of total greenhouse gas emissions compared to the personal protective equipment incineration process. It also avoids 41.52% and 47.64% of total natural land occupation from the personal protective equipment landfilling and incineration processes.