Manual material handling in the supermarket sector. Part 2: Knee, spine and shoulder joint reaction forces

Manual material handling is common in supermarkets and may be a contributing factor to the high prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, particularly lower back. This cross-sectional study applied state-of-the-art models driven by kinematic data obtained two estimate joint reaction forces knees, shoulders lumbar spine under dynamic lifting conditions. Based on 1479 lifts from 15 workers, 8 tasks for which compression or shear L5-S1 exceeded well-known biomechanical tolerance limits were identified. High shoulder associated with relatively heavy merchandise shelves, while weight handled was main predictor knee forces. The addressed limitations traditional analysis tools first present detailed loads during manual supermarket sector based field measurements.