Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy)

Abstract

Occupational logging activities expose workers to a wide range of risk factors, such as lifting heavy loads, prolonged, awkward positioning of the lower back, repetitive movements, and insufficient work pauses. Body posture has an important impact on the level of physiological load. The present study involved a group of 40 loggers in the province of Enna (Sicily, Italy) with the aim of defining the impact of logging activities on the workers’ physiological strain during the three primary work tasks of felling, delimbing, and bucking. The Zephyr Bioharness measurement system was used to record trunk posture and heart rate data during work tasks. The NASA TLX questionnaire was used to explore workers’ effort perception of the work tasks. Based on our results, the most demanding work task was tree felling, which requires a higher level of cardiac cost and longer periods spent in awkward trunk postures. The perceived physiological workload was consistently underestimated, especially by the more experienced loggers. Lastly, as the weight of the chainsaw increased, the cardiac load increased.

Energy Expenditure Estimation for Forestry Workers Moving on Flat and Inclined Ground

“…Heart rate (HR) monitoring is widely used to estimate the workload. Several studies have measured the workload of forestry workers using HR monitors in the field [9][10][11][12][13][14]. They reported a single task or operation, such as afforestation, pruning, felling, or cable work, and used the crude or HR relative to the maximal or submaximal HR.…”

Domains of Physical and Mental Workload in Health Work and Unpaid Domestic Work by Gender Division: A Study with Primary Health Care Workers in Brazil

“…This was designed to capture the subjective experience of workers [ 12 , 13 ]. This scale has been applied in different work environments [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ] and was validated in terms of its conceptual and operational structures in Brazilian studies [ 27 , 28 ]. Furthermore, the research group had used this scale in previous studies [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ].…”

Penggunaan Pendekatan Cardiovascular Load (CVL) dan Subjective Workload Assessment Technique (SWAT) Dalam Menganalisis Beban Kerja Driver Online

“…Ini disebabkan oleh fakta bahwa denyut nadi dapat merespons perubahan dalam beban kerja fisik dan mental. Adapun menentukan klasifikasi beban kerja berdasarkan peningkatan denyut nadi kerja yang dibandingkan dengan denyut nadi maksimum yang dinyatakan dalam beban cardiovasculer load [10]; [11]; [12]. Sedangkan metode SWAT dalam penerapannya akan memberikan penskalaan subjektif yang sederhana dan mudah dilakukan untuk mengkuantitatifkan beban kerja dari aktivitas yang harus dilakukan oleh pekerja [13]; [14]; [15].…”