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introduction. Special strains are an occupational hazard often due to physical loads and inadequately designed work equipment.
objective. The aim of this pilot study was to determine occupational illnesses related to physical strains through an experimental design that assesses the associated working postures and oxygen uptake in apple harvesting....
Citations
... Por último, este estudio colige sobre el comportamiento del canastillo en la carga postural de hombres, lo que limita inferir sobre la influencia de los tratamientos en mujeres dedicadas a la labor. Estadísticamente, el sexo femenino es susceptible de padecer DME relacionados con el trabajo y desde la norma, solo se ha legislado sobre las diferencias de género en la manipulación manual de cargas, pero no en movimientos repetitivos y posturas forzadas, como factores que más afectan los puestos ocupados por mujeres [15], de allí que el estudio de la carga postural en recolectoras permitirá complementar las intervenciones ergonómicas para la labor. ...
This article associates the way of using the basket with the degree of pain in the collection of Mora de Castilla. A cross-sectional correlational study is presented, with the participation of four male workers. The real conditions of the task were analyzed in 256 positions using the O.W.A.S. It was found that 45.3% of the positions have a risk level of 2. The statistical association of the treatment with the level of risk was p = 0.709, for back p = 0.516, for arms p = 0.005 and for legs p <0, 05. It is concluded that there is no significant difference between the treatment and the level of risk of the task, which suggests that the way in which farmers use the basket does not influence an increase or decrease in postural risk in the collection task of Mora de Castilla. However, according to O.W.A.S. It is necessary to implement corrective actions in the near future. The way farmers use the basket does not influence an increase or decrease in postural risk in the task of collecting Mora de Castilla.
... An inventory sheet for each phase of the life cycle was prepared, listing the hours of work that were necessary (average) for each task (planting, irrigation, pruning, tillage, pesticide treatments, harvesting, etc.). Then, each task was related to one or more working condition (noise, vibration, stress, cold temperatures, high physical demand, use of chemicals, and so on) (Bernardi et al. 2013;Bernardi et al. 2017;Callea et al. 2014). A literature review was conducted to gather scientific studies that correlated these conditions with psychosocial risks to obtain the PRF matrix (see Electronic Supplementary Material 1). ...
Purpose
Social life cycle assessment (SLCA) was the last tool to be developed within the framework of life cycle thinking, and since the beginning, there has been a struggle to reach a consensus on a standardized methodology. In fact, many different methodological proposals have been published, diverging on many points. The main difference lies in the epistemological position underlying these proposals. The aim of this study is to propose an impact pathway for assessing the social consequences of a product’s life cycle—the psychosocial risk factor (PRF) impact pathway. The epistemological posture of this methodology is post-positivist, because it is based on an objective assessment of the possible consequences of the functioning of the life cycle, and therefore, it is in line with environmental LCA.
Methods
Possible impacts on workers’ health were measured in terms of risks, i.e., using the odds ratio, a statistical measure of the intensity of the association between two variables. Odds ratios explaining the relationships between working conditions and health troubles were retrieved from previously published empirical studies. These statistical relationships were used to build an impact pathway that links the product’s life cycle to possible social impacts in a quantifiable and probabilistic way.
Results and discussion
The PRF impact pathway was applied to citriculture in the Calabria region of South Italy. The results showed that the life cycle, from cradle to farm gate, of industrial oranges exposed workers to a risk for about 43,088 h against 54,110 h for the clementine life cycle. In general, musculoskeletal disorders are the highest concern for both products, followed by osteoarthritis, disability, and cardiovascular diseases. For all impact categories, the industrial oranges’ life cycle showed the best performance, mainly due to the shorter duration of a single operation. The results are generalizable to other evaluation contexts.
Conclusions
The PRF impact pathway was applied to the stakeholders group “workers,” but can be extended to other typologies of actor, such as consumers and local residents. Further, it allowed for an objective assessment of the impacts principally linked to the functioning of the citruses’ life cycles, by quantifying and qualifying the hours of work, and can be extended to other fields of application.
... OWAS and other methods were used to evaluate the physical effort of men and women. The OWAS method elicited postures that were grouped into categories 1, 2, and 3 [81]. ...
... This method can be applied in many work sectors [67], including healthcare [82][83][84][85][86][87], industry [88][89][90][91][92][93], agriculture and livestock [78][79][80][81]94,95], information technologies [96][97][98][99][100][101], construction [102][103][104][105][106], transport and logistics [107][108][109][110][111][112], and education [113][114][115][116], as well as in other areas, such as supermarkets [117], power line work [118], workers with mental disabilities [119], cooking [120], and electronic or electrical equipment work [121]. ...
... In other fruit crops, such as apples, the harvesting task was classified into categories 1 and 2, presenting lower risk than in the case of melons [81]. ...
Health and safety at work directly influence the development of sustainable agriculture. In the agricultural sector, many farm workers suffer musculoskeletal disorders caused by forced posture. The objective of this research is to assess working postures during melon cultivation in Almería-type greenhouses. The Ovako Working Posture Assessment System (OWAS) has been used with pictures of the tasks. The variables studied by multiple correspondence analysis were as follows: Subtask, Posture code, Back, Arms, Legs, Load, Risk, and Risk combination. The OWAS analysis showed that 47.57% of the postures were assessed as risk category 2, 14.32% as risk category 3, 0.47% as risk category 4, and the rest as risk category 1. Corrective measures should be implemented immediately, as soon as possible, or in the near future, depending on the risks detected.
... Vibrations, also associated with other factors, constitute a risk which increases occupational illnesses and accidents and decreases work productivity in agriculture [22]. The frequency analysis carried out in this study was useful for defining the vibration behaviour of two cutting heads of a brush cutter. ...
Introduction:
Weed control is one of the most important issues in the maintenance sectors of both agriculture and green areas. Small tools are employed for controlling grass and other growths on steep verges and river banks. This leads the operators being exposed to many risks among which vibration is one. The purpose of this study is to measure and evaluate hand-arm vibration and to verify the daily exposure to which workers are often subjected while weeding.
Material and methods:
Two cutting heads, a brush knife and a mowing head were compared. Both were mounted on the same cow-horn brush cutter. The vibration total value was expressed as the root-mean-square (rms) of three component values according to the axes X, Y and Z. The signal was frequency weighted using the weighting curve Wh, as described in the ISO 5349-1 (2001) standard. In addition, the daily vibration exposure was calculated and compared with the thresholds set by EU Directive 2002/44/EC (2005).
Results:
The obtained results showed that the exposure action value (EAV) of 2.5 ms<sup>-2</sup> was exceeded while using both cutting heads. The exposure limit value (ELV) using the brush knife also exceeded 5 ms<sup>-2</sup>.
Conclusions:
The results highlighted important aspects in terms of exposure values that should be considered with the view of preventing the risk of Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) to which the operators who frequently use these tools are exposed. Specific measures should therefore be taken to protect the exposed workers.
