A study was performed to investigate how different types of handle coupling affect the loading on the spine. Ten male grocery item selectors performed a laboratory simulation of a warehouse palletizing task. Participants transferred the cases from a pallet in a storage bin to the destination pallet. The trunk motions and muscle activities were monitored by a Lumbar Motion Monitor (LMM) and elec...

This paper gives an overview of a participatory ergonomic intervention aimed at reducing low back pain cases in the dispatch department of a catalogue and e-commerce retail company. Based on the findings of the ergonomic analysis and design committee, the company's own employees redesigned the assembly line's layout. As a result of these changes two job tasks that involved manual material handl...

The aim of this study is to evaluate the physical demands of the manual materials handling method that is currently used in a soft drink beverages company for palletizing and depalletizing soft drink beverage boxes, to assess the potential risk of injury and to recommend injury prevention strategies. The study utilizes three methods of evaluation namely, biomechanical, physiological and psychop...

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate relationships between the revised NIOSH lifting equation (RNLE) and risk of low-back pain (LBP). Background: The RNLE is commonly used to quantify job physical stressors to the low back from lifting and/or lowering of loads. There is no prospective study on the relationship between RNLE and LBP that includes accounting for relevant covariates. Me...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate relationships between the revised NIOSH lifting equation (RNLE) and risk of low-back pain (LBP). BACKGROUND The RNLE is commonly used to quantify job physical stressors to the low back from lifting and/or lowering of loads. There is no prospective study on the relationship between RNLE and LBP that includes accounting for relevant covariates. ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the revised NIOSH lifting equation (RNLE) and risk of seeking care for low-back pain (SC-LBP). BACKGROUND The RNLE is commonly used to quantify low-back physical stressors from lifting/lowering of loads in workplaces. There is no prospective study on relationship between RNLE and SC-LBP. METHOD A cohort of 258 incid...

America’s workforce is becoming more diverse. Generally, this diversity includes workers with different anthropometry (size, shape), capabilities, work experiences, and ethnicities. More importantly, the workforce is also aging and becoming heavier. However, the impact of aging and obesity is typically not considered in traditional ergonomic modeling. This paper explores the potential impact of...

Although total carbon (TC) can be consistently quantified by various aerosol carbon measurement methods, the demarcation of TC into organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) has long been inconsistent. The NIOSH and IMPROVE protocols are most widely used for thermal/optical analysis (TOA), but current knowledge rests in the description that the NIOSH protocol usually gives lower EC values t...

OBJECTIVES To quantify the variability in lifting motions, trunk moments, and spinal loads associated with repeated lifting exertions and to identify workplace factors that influence the biomechanical variability. DESIGN Measurement of trunk dynamics, moments and muscle activities were used as inputs into EMG assisted model of spinal loading. BACKGROUND Traditional biomechanical models assu...