Assessment of Postural Load during Melon Cultivation in Mediterranean Greenhouses

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Abstract

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.

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RULA: a survey method for the investigation of work-related upper limb disorders.

Lynn McAtamney, E. Nigel Corlett (1993)

RULA (rapid upper limb assessment) is a survey method developed for use in ergonomics investigations of workplaces where work-related upper limb disorders are reported. This tool requires no special equipment in providing a quick assessment of the postures of the neck, trunk and upper limbs along with muscle function and the external loads experienced by the body. A coding system is used to generate an action list which indicates the level of intervention required to reduce the risks of injury due to physical loading on the operator. It is of particular assistance in fulfilling the assessment requirements of both the European Community Directive (90/270/EEC) on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment and the UK Guidelines on the prevention of work-related upper limb disorders.

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Rapid entire body assessment (REBA).

Sue Hignett, Lynn McAtamney (2000)

This technical note details the preliminary stage in the development of a postural analysis tool, Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). REBA has been developed to fill a perceived need for a practitioner's field tool, specifically designed to be sensitive to the type of unpredictable working postures found in health care and other service industries. A team of ergonomists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and nurses collected and individually coded over 600 postural examples to produce a new tool incorporating dynamic and static postural loading factors, human-load interface (coupling), and a new concept of a gravity-assisted upper limb position. Initial reliability for inter-observer coding shows promise but further work is needed to establish the validity of the tool.