Physiological workload of workers employed during motor-manual timber harvesting in young alder stands in different seasons

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined the physiological strain experienced by workers employed in motor-manual timber harvesting performed in winter and summer, and the applicability of heart rate indices for estimating energy expenditure. Material and Methods: The heart rates (HR) of 2 teams consisting of 2 persons working simultaneously during felling and forwarding, in both winter and summer, were measured. Heart rate at work (HR work ), resting heart rate (HR rest ), relative heart rate (%HRR), ratio of working heart rate to resting heart rate, and 50% level were used to estimate the physiological workload in particular jobs. The HR index (HR work /HR rest ) equation was used to estimate the energy expenditure (EE). Results: For all jobs, significantly higher physiological workload and energy expenditure were recorded during winter. Conclusions: The season significantly affects the physiological workload during logging operations. If there is no possibility of harvesting wood in summer, in order to limit the workload of workers during winter activity, attention should be paid to the proper organization of work and selection of workers.

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

“…The results of the association between heart rate and metabolic rate were in accordance with a previous formula [20]. Several studies have reported small sample sizes in actual forestry fields (5-13 participants) [10][11][12][13]. A low risk of a statistical type 2 error due to small sample size, which indicates a small measurement error in correlation, may be a strength for implementing the main study.…”

“…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.…”

Within-individual changes in physical work demands associated with self-reported health and musculoskeletal symptoms: a cohort study among Dutch workers

“…A baseline work demand as a predictor of an health outcome, assumes that physical work demands do not change during the follow up period. However, this is often not the case as people can change jobs and/or their work tasks can change in intensity during the course of a career (Åkerstedt et al 2019 ), or across seasons (Grzywiński et al 2022 ), workweeks or days (Sandlund et al 2017 ).…”

Assessing the Impact of Saw Chain Type and Wood Species on Wood Dust Concentration in Forestry Operations: Implications for Air Pollution in Urban and Industrial Areas

“…However, chainsaw use has its drawbacks, including noise, vibrations, physical strain, exhaust gases, and airborne wood dust [10]. Several researchers have examined the problems associated with noise [11,12,13], vibrations [14,15,16], physical strain [17,18,19], as well as the determination of carbon monoxide [20,21], and exhaust emissions [22,23,24].…”