Work - Related Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Case Study of Sawmill Workers in Bangladesh

Abstract

Sawmill workers in Bangladesh are increasingly at risk of emerging work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs). Their jobs involve awkward manual handling tasks such as lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling. These are identified as risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders. The aims of this study are to find out the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and assessing the postural risk level among sawmills workers. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 254 workers from 60 sawmills at the southern part of Bangladesh. The overall 70.1% of sawmills workers were suffering musculoskeletal disorders in at least one body part for the last one year. The average Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) score of four main tasks (Pushing, Pulling, Lifting, and Carrying the timber) was 9.25, which is high risk for MSDs symptoms. The main reasons behind these MSDs are lack of knowledge about workplace safety, working postures and the settings of the workplace. We have recommended to the management to apply the NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) lifting and Manual Material handling techniques; arrange OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) ergonomic training to the workers. Also, suggested designing the working table and workplaces in ergonomically to mitigate the musculoskeletal disorders.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and their associated factors among quarry workers in Nigeria: A cross-sectional study

“…This finding is in line with the findings of other studies on MSDs in Saudi Arabia (Alghadir and Anwer, 2015) and China (Yan et al, 2017). Work experience was also positively associated with MSDs, which is similar with other studies (Ekpenyong and Inyang, 2014) and (Rahman et al, 2019). Moreover, multiple logistic regression modelling showed that three key factors remained significantly associated with MSDs among quarry workers.…”

“…Workers who are not obese have 0.17 less odd of developing this disorder. Similar finding was indicated in a study among sawmill workers in Bangladesh, whereby their BMI was significantly associated with MSDs (Rahman et al, 2019).…”

“…Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) constitute major occupational health problems globally (Ekpenyong and Inyang, 2014;Ayub and Shah, 2018;Rahman et al, 2019). According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Safety (2015), MSDs are complex group of painful disorders of tendons, muscles and ligaments caused by frequent and recurrent work activities or awkward occupational posture.…”

Epidemiological correlates of well being at work place and hazards identification and risk assessment amongst saw mill workers in anand, Gujarat

“…stated the mean working time as 11 hours. [ 14 ] This is in contrast to our study where we found effective working hours as 8 hours. In the study by Sutcu A and Semerci NT, they found female employees as 3.6% only and more than half of the employees were from 30 to 40 years and three fourth employees had primary education.…”

Effects of Awkward Posture on Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) among Sawmill Workers in India

“…Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) usually occur due to heavy physical work, static working postures for a long duration, frequent bending, squatting, and twisting postures, manual material handling, and repetitiveness of work [5]. In the sawmill industry, workers repetitively perform massive manual tasks for a prolonged duration, which could lead to severe physical stress among them [6]. According to Das [7,8], brickfield workers suffer from musculoskeletal pain due to working for a long period of time without meeting ergonomic requirements.…”