Forced Postures in Courgette Greenhouse Workers

Abstract

Occupational health and safety allows the prevention of occupational diseases and accidents. Agriculture is one of the sectors in which it is important to prevent the musculoskeletal disorders that workers usually develop. The objective of this study is the evaluation of postures adopted by courgette farmers in greenhouses of the Almeria-type. OWAS (Ovako Working Posture Assessment System), an ergonomic evaluation method, is used and applied after making observations to the postures adopted by the workers who were previously video recorded. The results concluded that the four risk levels established by OWAS appeared, with 37.14% being the highest rate and belonging to risk level 2, 33.33% to risk level 1, 28.57% to risk level 3, and 0.95% to risk level 4. Therefore, depending on the severity of the postures adopted in each task, the need for changes in a short, medium, or long period of time was concluded.

Repetitive Movements in Melon Cultivation Workers under Greenhouses

“…The second, especially in the harvesting task, is the manipulated weight with a bent back for a certain period. Both the causes coincide in the analysis of another creeping greenhouse cultivation crop like courgettes [22]. In addition, although without being a creeping cultivation, something similar occurs with the oil palm [54].…”

“…The horticultural sector is one of the industries that presents greater risk (especially for MSDs) for its workers because most of the tasks are manual [8,[21][22][23]. The International Ergonomics Association (IEA) defines ergonomics as 'the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance'.…”

“…The horticultural sector is one of the industries that presents greater risk (especially for MSDs) for its workers because most of the tasks are manual [8,[21][22][23]. Agriculture is a primary sector in which workers from all over the world suffer work-related diseases or accidents every year [18], so it is necessary to implement actions to achieve safety at work [19,20].…”

“…The horticultural sector is one of the industries that presents greater risk (especially for MSDs) for its workers because most of the tasks are manual [8,[21][22][23].…”

“…It is important to establish recommendations that allow certain cultivations or tasks to be carried out safely, after a detailed evaluation of the MSDs developed by workers. Studies of this type, although scarce, have been carried out in the cultivation of crops such as melons and courgettes and in tutored tasks in greenhouses in the province [21][22][23].…”