Assessing Combined Exposures of Whole-body Vibration and Awkward Posture― Further Results from Application of a Simultaneous Field Measurement Methodology

Abstract

The drivers of ten vehicles (tram, helicopter, saloon car, van, forklift, two mobile excavators, wheel loader, tractor, elevating platform truck) were studied with regard to the combined exposures of whole-body vibration and awkward posture during occupational tasks. Seven degrees of freedom (DOFs), or body angles, were recorded as a function of time by means of the CUELA measuring system (Computer-assisted registration and long-term analysis of musculoskeletal workloads) for the purpose of posture assessment. The vibrational exposure is expressed as the vector sum of the frequency-weighted accelerations in the three Cartesian coordinates; these were recorded simultaneously with the posture measurement. Based upon the percentage of working time spent under different workloads, a scheme is proposed for classification of the two exposures into three categories. In addition, a risk of adverse health effects classified as low, possible or high can be assigned to the combination of the two exposures. With regard to posture, the most severe exposure was measured for the drivers of the wheel loader and for the tractor driver, whereas the lowest exposure was measured for the helicopter pilots and van drivers. With regard to the combination of whole-body and posture exposures, the tractor driver and the elevating platform truck driver exhibited the highest workloads.

Combined exposures of whole-body vibration and awkward posture: a cross sectional investigation among occupational drivers by means of simultaneous field measurements

“…Thus, subject-specific angle offsets and errors caused by the sensor attachment can be eliminated. Overall, movement artefacts are less than ±1° in low-vibration environments and ±4° during rough vibrations with high amplitudes and low frequencies (Raffler et al 2010) (Hermanns et al 2008). Other artefacts such as interference of sensors with the backrest or subject's clothes were detected a posteriori by video analysis.…”

“…However, due to the complexity of measuring posture quantitatively, no epidemiological analysis has so far investigated the combination of these exposures by means of quantitative data and their relationship to LBP. The CUELA posture measuring system ('computerassisted recording and long-term analysis of musculoskeletal loads') has been introduced for field measurements of combined exposure to WBV and posture (Raffler et al 2010), (Hermanns et al 2008). This system permits the quantitative analysis of posture as body angles during exposure to WBV.…”

“…Drivers' posture has been detected by using the CUELA system (Raffler et al 2010), (Amari, Caruel, and Donati 2015;Hermanns et al 2008). Making use of inertial/kinematic sensor technology, the CUELA system records the detected posture continuously as an angular measurement.…”

Motion analysis in the field of dentistry: a kinematic comparison of dentists and orthodontists

“…These angle values were subsequently evaluated and assigned to a colour-coded angle range (traffic light system: red/yellow/green) in compliance with ergonomic standards 2428 29 Based on the respective colours, postures were assessed as unfavourable (awkward), moderate or neutral30 (table 1). …”

Research Using Virtual Reality: Mobile Machinery Safety in the 21st Century

“…This approach is similar to other researchers [82,83]. We assembled contingency tables to illustrate the relationship between the posture and vibration health risks (Table 1).…”