Acquah Augustine A, D'Souza Clive, Martin Bernard, Arko-Mensah John, Nti Afua Asabea, Kwarteng Lawrencia, Takyi Sylvia, Botwe Paul K, Tettey Prudence, Dwomoh Duah, Quakyi Isabella A, Robins Thomas G, Fobil Julius N
Department of Biological Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
Center for Ergonomics, Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Proc Hum Factors Ergon Soc Annu Meet. 2020 Dec;64(1):905-909. doi: 10.1177/1071181320641216. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
Most existing ergonomic assessment tools are intended for routine work. Time- and cost-efficient observational tools for ergonomic assessment of unregulated work are lacking. This paper presents the development of an observation-based tool designed to investigate ergonomic exposures among informal electronic waste workers that could be applied to other unregulated jobs/tasks. Real time coding of observation is used to estimate the relative duration, intensity, and frequency of exposure to key work postures, forceful exertions, movements, contact stress and vibration. Time spent in manual material handling activities such as carrying, lifting and pushing/pulling of working carts are also estimated. A preliminary study conducted with 6 e-waste workers showed that the tool can easily be used with minimal training and good inter-observer agreement (i.e., 89% to 100%) for most risk factors assessed. This new assessment tool provides effective and flexible options for quantifying ergonomic exposures among workers engaged in unregulated, highly variable work.
大多数现有的人体工程学评估工具适用于常规工作。缺乏用于对无规范工作进行人体工程学评估的省时且经济高效的观察工具。本文介绍了一种基于观察的工具的开发，该工具旨在调查非正规电子垃圾工人的人体工程学暴露情况，且可应用于其他无规范的工作/任务。观察的实时编码用于估计暴露于关键工作姿势、强力 exertions、动作、接触应力和振动的相对持续时间、强度和频率。还估计了诸如搬运、 lifting 和推拉工作推车等手动物料搬运活动所花费的时间。对6名电子垃圾工人进行的初步研究表明，该工具经过最少的培训即可轻松使用，并且对于所评估的大多数风险因素，观察者间的一致性良好（即89%至100%）。这种新的评估工具为量化从事无规范、高度可变工作的工人的人体工程学暴露提供了有效且灵活的选择。
