Study on Musculoskeletal Disorders in a Machinery Manufacturing Plant

Abstract

Musculoskeletal disorders and related risk factors in machinery manufacturing were investigated using interviews, postural analysis, and the revised National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health lifting equation. Sixty-nine workers involved in manual materials handling (Job A) and 51 machinery workers less involved with manual material-handling tasks (Job B) were studied. Low back pain (LBP) (at least one episode lasting for 24 hours or more in past 12 months) prevalence rates were 63.8% and 37.3% for Jobs A and B, respectively. Prevalence rates of LBP every day for a week or more attributed to lifting were 26.09% and 5.88% for Jobs A and B, respectively. Multiple regression analysis revealed that lifting repetitiveness and work age contributed to the occurrence of LBP. The "composite load" (object weight x activity repetitiveness) had a significant adverse effect on LBP.

Working conditions and musculoskeletal pain among Brazilian pottery workers

“…Studies have shown that prolonged standing is associated with discomfort and cardiovascular problems and have postulated the benefits of changing posture while working 22 . Back pain can also be related to working in standing positions, and to activities which require lifting/carrying loads and repetitive movements of the upper limbs 23,24 . Neck, shoulder and upper limb pain have been related to work activities which require holding the neck in a forward bent posture for a prolonged time, working with arms above shoulder level and repetitive movements of hands and wrists 25,26,27 .…”

Effect of safety shoes type, lifting frequency, and ambient temperature on subject's MAWL and physiological responses

“…Exposure to MMH tasks, especially manual lifting, is recognized as a major cause of injury in general and an important contributor to the etiology of low-back disorders in particular (NIOSH, 1981;Ayoub and Mital, 1989;Riihimaki, 1991;Skovron, 1992;Mirka and Marras, 1993;Burdorf and Sorock, 1997;Xiao et al, 2004).…”

Evaluation of the Impact of the Revised National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Lifting Equation

“…The vast majority of the publications were published in English. Three documents (Chen & Yang, 2006; Xiao, Lei, Dempsey, Ma, & Liang, 2004; Xiao & Liang, 2008) were published in a Chinese scientific journal. One article was published in a Dutch journal (Vink, Smitt, & Van Den Berg, 1993).…”

“…Of the 13 studies, 3 utilized an existing injury database collected in the field for an analysis of the relationship between the LI and health/injury outcomes (Marras, Fine, Ferguson, & Waters, 1999; Sesek, Gilkey, Drinkaus, Bloswick, & Herron, 2003; Yeung et al, 2003). Individual or grouped LI data were used for associating the LI values with health outcomes in the remaining studies (Garg et al, 2014; Kapellusch et al, 2014; Kucera et al, 2009; Lu et al, 2014; Schneider, Grant, Habes, & Bertsche, 1997; Wang et al, 1998; Waters et al, 1999; Waters et al, 2011; Xiao, Dempsey, Lei, Ma, & Liang, 2004). As seen in Table 1, the RNLE studies were conducted primarily in the manufacturing and wholesale and retail trade (WRT) sectors.…”