Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, working conditions, and related risk factors in the meat processing industry: Comparative analysis of Iran-Poland.

BACKGROUND: Activities performed by people in the meat processing industry are very repetitive, time-consuming, dangerous, and require long-term downtime during a shift (forced-static position). OBJECTIVES: This study aims to assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and working conditions among Polish and Iranian workers to fill this research gap. METHODS: A comparative analysis of the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in developed and developing countries was conducted. After selecting the target factories, data was collected using Nordic and Mental Stress Questionnaires and 3DSSPP software with the participation of 110 meat processing workers, including 55 Iranian and 55 Polish. RESULTS: This study showed nearly the same prevalence of MSDs among male Iranian and Polish workers, especially in elbow, wrist/hand, upper back, hip/thigh, and ankle/foot. The overall prevalence of MSDs was relatively high and connected to the lower back (38%, 64%), knee (40%, 24%), neck (24%, 42%), and upper back (24%, 34.5%), among Iranian and Polish workers, respectively. Assessment of logistic regression disclosed that the workplace is considerably associated with the elbow and the ankle/foot musculoskeletal pain, with 2.34 and 3.81 times more likely for the production room, respectively, among Iranian workers. CONCLUSION: Age, gender, type of occupation, work experience, smoking, insufficient physical activity, workplace, working postures, and stress level all affected the likelihood of MSDs happening in various body regions in both countries, implying that both individual and work-related (both physical and psychosocial) aspects should be taken into consideration when evaluating and managing such complaints in this workforce.

Evaluation of working conditions, work postures, musculoskeletal disorders and low back pain among sugar production workers.

BACKGROUND: It is generally agreed that musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a severe health concern, particularly for agricultural laborers. OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to identify risk factors and work-related disorders among agricultural workers at Amirkabir agro-industry company in Iran. METHOD: A total of 158 workers, of which 66 were manual harvesting workers (four postures), 40 were fertilizer transportation workers (three postures), and 52 were spraying workers (one posture), were included in the study. The research used questionnaires to collect data, and the postures were analyzed using 3DSSPP software. Related risk factors such as age, body mass index, work experience, working hours, and sports activity were analyzed. RESULTS: The incidence rate of lower back pain (94%), knee pain (82%), neck pain (69%), upper-back (63%), and shoulder (63%) were calculated. The logistic regression revealed that working hours and sports activities are significantly correlated to the wrist/hand and neck MSD with 5.62 and 6.38 times more likely among manual harvesting workers. The 3DSSPP software estimated that the lower back pain, especially in the first posture, for manure transportation workers was very high. Maximum L5-S1 compression, shear, and moment forces in the first posture among manure transportation workers were 7113 N and 472 N, -381 N-m, respectively. CONCLUSION: The 3DSSPP results also illustrated that compression, shear, and moment forces exceeded the NIOSH limit for the other postures. After interventions, compression, shear, and moment forces among all farm workers decreased. These findings emphasize that farm workers need to be under surveillance continuously at their workstations where interventions and improvement in specific tasks are required.

Energy-economic-environmental cycle evaluation comparing two polyethylene and polycarbonate plastic greenhouses in cucumber production (from production to packaging and distribution).

Excessive consumption and improper management of inputs would lead to environmental damages, as well as decreased economic benefits. Thus, a thorough examination of the entire production process from the viewpoint of energy flow, economic profit, and environmental effects can identify hotspots and facilitate input management. Accordingly, in the current investigation, energy, economic and environmental aspects of greenhouse cucumber production systems were measured by life cycle assessment (LCA) technique and cumulative exergy demand (CExD) analysis by considering different greenhouse structures. Furthermore, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach was used to determine the efficiency of manufacturing units and optimal consumption pattern. The information required was acquired through interviews and questionnaires with 35 greenhouse owners, and consultation with greenhouse enterprises in the Khuzestan province of Iran. Based on the findings, energy consumed was 6626.45 MJton-1 in Sc1, and 6410.32 MJton-1 in Sc 3. The findings of benchmarking revealed that boosting the efficiency of the crop production process can lower input energy by 14.80%. The energy consumption for the construction of the first and second type of greenhouses was calculated to be 14,811.13 and 17,541.73 MJ (1000 m2)-1, respectively. With regard to the production variable costs, chemical fertilizers and labor had the largest contributions to the total expenses, at 7.6 (15.41%) and 7.87 $tonne-1(15.94%), respectively. In the evaluation of the energy and economic indicators, the combined indicator of Energy Intensiveness for the first and second types of greenhouse systems was found to be 80.26 and 77.07 MJ$-1, respectively, indicating higher energy-economic productivity of the first type of system. Based on LCA results, direct emissions due to input consumption (air: carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx); soil: mercury (Hg), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb)), and indirect emissions induced by chemical fertilizers, greenhouse structures, and chemical pesticides production are the environmental hotspots.