The Role of a New Harvest Platform in Alleviation of Apple Workers’ Occupational Injuries During Harvest

Abstract

Abstract. Migrant seasonal workers manually harvest apples throughout the U.S. using ladders and buckets due to the care required for prevention of bruises and other physical damage. The motions associated with hand harvest have potential to cause musculoskeletal disorders of the neck, shoulder, and back/trunk. A prototype harvest platform was developed, aimed at alleviating occupational injuries and increasing harvest productivity by replacing ladders for reaching high apples. This study evaluated the activities of three harvest methods, i.e., conventional harvest (using ladders and buckets), harvest platform (for high apples only), and combined method (conventional harvest for low and middle apples and harvest platform for high apples) using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) method performed by trained researchers. Postures/activities with RULA grand scores > 5 were categorized as awkward (causing occupational injuries); otherwise, they were considered comfortable (not leading to health issues). Experimental results demonstrated that awkward activities in conventional harvest were mainly related to the use of ladders. Activities with the harvest platform were comfortable due to the elimination of ladders and buckets. The combined method significantly decreased the workers’ time spent in awkward postures (from 64% with conventional harvest to 30% with the combined method) by eliminating awkward activities and increased the overall harvest productivity by approximately 40%. Apple growers and workers are therefore suggested to use the combined method to replace conventional harvest. Keywords: Agricultural safety, Apple harvest, Ergonomic analysis, Harvest platform, Migrant seasonal workers, Occupational injuries, Postures.

Critical Ergonomics and (Dis)Comfort Factors While Performing Tasks with Hand Tools on a Ladder: A Pilot Study

“…The most investigated factors regard heavy loads and manipulation of objects while working at heights; incongruous posture, and repetitive arm use; loading/unloading ladders from vehicles; and placing ladders on the shoulder to move them. Some studies have been conducted, especially in the agricultural sector, and during apple harvesting operations [25][26][27][28][29]. In [25,26], two different apple harvesting methods were compared: a conventional ladder and a newly developed mobile platform.…”

“…In [25,26], two different apple harvesting methods were compared: a conventional ladder and a newly developed mobile platform. In [28,29], the analysis carried out using the RULA [30] method is aimed at identifying uncomfortable postures/activities that occurred during apple harvesting. In [24] the aim was to compare mechanical load, safety, energetic workload, perceived exertion, and perceived discomfort, among window cleaners that used some extension ladders with 30 and 35 cm rung separation.…”

Ergonomic and efficiency analysis of conventional apple harvest process

“…The RULA method was applied to assess workers' postures in a ceramic industry and have its reliability proven [37] . In addition, the RULA method's validity has been demonstrated by using it to analyzing dental students' postures [38][39][40][41][42][43][44] .…”