Whole Body Vibration Exposures and Health Status among Professional Truck Drivers: A Cross-sectional Analysis

Abstract

Many professional truck drivers suffer from low back pain (LBP) which is thought to be associated with exposure to whole-body vibration (WBV). The objectives of this study were to: (i) characterize general health, regional body pain and WBV exposures, (ii) evaluate the associations between different WBV parameters and health outcomes, and (iii) determine whether there were factors which affect a truck driver's WBV exposures. This study analyzed WBV exposures from 96 long-haul truck drivers over their regular work shift (6-15h) per International Standards Organization (ISO) 2631-1 and 2631-5 WBV standards. This study also evaluated regional body pain (10-point scale), low back disability (the Oswestry Disability Index), and physical and mental health (the Short Form 12-item Health Survey). The results demonstrated that the daily vector sum WBV exposures [A(8), VDV(8) and Sed(8)] were above action limits while the predominant z-axis exposures were below action limits. Among all the musculoskeletal outcomes, LBP was the most prevalent (72.5%) with average LBP score of 2.9 (SD: 2.0). The SF-12 health scores demonstrated that truck drivers in general had lower physical health status than the general US population (P's < 0.04) and that physical health status decreased as WBV exposures increased (P = 0.03). In addition, the correlations between the WBV measures and health outcomes indicated that A(8) exposure measures had a stronger link to musculoskeletal (LBP) and other health outcomes than the VDV(8) and Sed(8) measures. Finally, seat manufacturer and seat age were two factors which had a strong influence on WBV exposures.

Measurement and evaluation of whole‐body vibration exposure in drivers of cargo vehicle compositions

“…The results found in the present study are similar to those obtained in several other exposure situations, investigated by other authors. For instance, the data from Thamsuwan et al () and Kim et al () indicate, as in the current work, that the criteria currently adopted by NR‐15 (2014) tend to be, in many cases, more stringent than the other standards currently used.…”

“…Kim et al () also include in their study on WBV in professional truck drivers the values of S ed , a v , and VDVR, using as reference the limits of the European Directive 2002/44/EC (). Only mean values and distribution parameters are presented, limiting the possibilities of comparison.…”

“…Eger, Stevenson, Boileau, Salmoni, and Vib (), Chen, Chen, Liu, Chen, and Pan (), Johnson, Rynell, and Blood (), Lewis and Johnson () and Park, Fukuda, Kim, and Maeda () carried comparisons out between ISO 2631‐1 (1997) and ISO 2631‐5 (2004) standards based on exposure measurements. Besides the same two ISO standards, Thamsuwan, Blood, Ching, Boyle, and Johnson () and Kim et al () included analyses based on vector sum and compared the results with the European Directive 2002/44/EC () limits. Birlik (), for instance, assessed the WBV exposure of train drivers through ISO 2631‐1 (1997) and the European Directive 2002/44/EC ().…”

Evaluation of Transmissibility Factors of Pneumatic Dumper Seats Used in Indian Mines- A Pilot Study

“…Whole-body vibration (WBV) is one such hazard known for more than a century and widely discussed in various literatures due to its probable negative health impacts on working population [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] .In surface mining of minerals, various heavy earth-moving machines are deployed for all major operations. All these machineries are more often sophisticated and technologically advanced.…”

Managing whole-body vibration at surface and underground coal mines

“…A number of field investigations have reported on whole-body vibration exposure for farm equipment (Mayton 2008b), truck drivers (Kim et al, 2016) and mining and quarrying machinery (Killen, 2016;Burgess-Limerick andLynas 2015a, 2015b;Wolfgang 2014;Wolfgang andBurgess-Limerick, 2014a, 2014b;Wolfgang et al 2014;Smets et al, 2010;Waters 2008;Mayton et al, 2008aMayton et al, , 2009Mayton et al, , 2014Eger et al, 2006Eger et al, , 2008Eger et al, ,2011a2011bKumar 2004),…”