Effects of Awkward Posture on Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) among Sawmill Workers in India
Banibrata Das*
- Phd in Ergonomics and Occupational Health, Dept. of Physiology, South Calcutta Girls’ College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
* Corresponding author: Banibrata Das; E-mail: dr.banibrata@gmail.com
Abstract
Background: The sawmill or lumber mill industry is mainly known as important small-scale industries in India, where thousands of sawmillers suffered from musculoskeletal pain and other health-related problems. The primary aim of the current study is to find out the subjective assessment of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and occupational related health disorders among sawmill workers in India.
Materials and Methods: The current descriptive study was direct on 135 sawmillers and 130 control subjects from different region of the Hooghly district, in India. To this end, the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) was administered to estimate the subjective discomfort feeling and Handgrip Strength were also measured to estimate the power of the hand muscle among the sawmillers and compare with control groups. Posture adopted frequently during working of the sawmillers were also analyzed by the Ovako Working Analysis System (OWAS).
Results: The data indicated that the sawmill workers complained of discomfort (pain) felt maximum in low back part of the body (91%) followed by hands (80%), shoulders (76%), knees (64%), and the upper back (58%). This study indicated that the sawmillers had less handgrip strength than the control subjects due to performing more hand intensive jobs.
Conclusions: The results of current study indicate that the sawmill workers suffered from MSD due to working in a stooped, squatting posture for a long duration, which adversely affected their health.
Keywords: Occupational Safety, Occupational Health, Public Health, Noise Pollution.
Introduction
Sawmilling is an operation in which wood is broken down and formed into different board sizes after passing through various machines at a sawmill plant. Different types of hazards in the sawmill industry include ergonomic hazards, physiological stress, environmental risks, air toxic emissions, noise, and hazards related to machinery use [1]. Ergonomic hazards mainly occur due to lifting heavy loads, molding logs, repetitive work, and awkward working postures. Sawmill workers generally perform strenuous tasks for a long period of time with a break taken during the working time. Thus, they are forced to carry many loads during their work schedule, which makes them suffer from work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Sawmilling is known to include a high level of manual material handling (MMH), which includes heavy loads, strong forces, awkward postures, and repetitive movements, which are responsible for WMSDs as well [2]. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) affect the human musculoskeletal system, including body joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves, and tendons. These disorders are associated with specific workloads in the sawmill industry, which are caused by adverse static positions, high demands on hand movements, working with vibrating tools, and working with unsupported elevated arms [3, 4]. 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. MMH is a main causative factor in WMSDs, which is mainly associated in sawmilling. Excessive physical workloads, noise, and heat stress have been identified as factors exerting adverse health effects on sawmill workers. Besides, different types of health risk in sawmill along with unfavourable working condition, noise pollution, which affects human [9]. Due to the high level of MMH involved in sawmilling operations, workers are exposed to high levels of risk and physical workloads. Excessive physical workloads, noise, and heat stress have been identified as factors exerting adverse health effects among sawmill workers [1, 10].
Sawmillers generally perform several types of strenuous and physical activities, among which one could refer to carrying logs or timbers, lifting timbers, processing wood, molding timbers in saw fillers, stacking wood (loading and unloading wood), grinding saw blades, as well as picking and packing sawdust. During the sawmilling process, sawmill workers have to face a lot of problems. One of these problems during the processing and molding of timbers is their direct exposure to dust containing microorganisms, including fungi, toxins, and chemical substances, which could significantly affect human health [11]. Adverse environ mental and physical conditions affect health conditions among sawmill workers. In addition, sawmill workers perform several types of activities that could cause hearing loss. Boateng and Amedofu [12] reported noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among local sawmill workers.
This study mainly aims to find out the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among sawmill workers. In addition, it tries to determine causative factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and occupational health problems occurring during sawmill activities among sawmill workers. Besides, this study aims to analyze working postures among sawmill workers and also tries to determine preventive measures for occupational health hazards. In the end, this study tries to evaluate handgrip strength among sawmill workers with the elbow flexion at 90º and 180º and compare the handgrip strength of the participants with that of the control subjects when resting and shortly after work.
Materials and Methods
This cross‐sectional study was conducted in two stages at 21 sawmills located by the river side of Bhadrakali, a Hooghly district of West Bengal, India. In the first stage, a total of 179 sawmill workers were selected randomly. In the second one, after checking the inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as collecting informed consent forms from the final experimental selected subjects (sawmill workers), a cross‐sectional study was conducted at 21 sawmills located by the riverside of Bhadrakali, a Hooghly district of West Bengal, India. This cross-sectional study was performed in two stages. In the first stage, a total of 179 sawmill workers were selected randomly. In the second stage, after checking the inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as collecting the informed consent forms, the final experimental subjects (n = 135) were selected. The same selection procedure was adopted for the control subjects. In the end, 130 subjects were randomly selected for the controls, who were busy in household activities involving a minimum number of manual activities. The sawmill unit was randomly selected from the surrounding area. There were no subjects who would work for less than six months at the sawmill. The exclusion criteria included injured subjects and subjects who did not grant consent for participating in the study.
An anthropometer measured the height, and a weighing machine measured the mass of the sawmillers and control workers. The Body Mass Index (BMI) [13] of the exposed and control subjects were also measured as well. Before performing the survey, written permission was received from each of the sawmill owners and other subjects. In addition, ethical approval was collected from the Institutional Human Ethical Clearance Committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research Guidelines.
The Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire (NMQ) [14] was applied to both groups, i.e. the sawmill workers and control subject. A Subjective assessment of musculoskeletal disorders was recorded by applied with modified NMQ, among the both groups of workers. The questionnaire includes some short questions that identified the workers' viewpoints, types of work, work duration, and pain felt in different body region.
Besides, a handgrip dynamometer was used to measure the handgrip strength of the sawmillers and differentiate the results with those of the controls. The sawmillers and the controls were instructed in a straight standing position with their sides not bending, their arms remain at their sides, without connecting their body, with the handgrip dynamometer handled at full force [15]. A dynamometer was used to carry out the measurement two times a day before and after to sawmill activities by the sawmillers at the elbow flexion of 90º and 180 º, for it has been observed that the maximum and minimum values of grip strength vary based on the elbow position [16].
In addition, a noise measuring instrument maker by the Lutron Electronics Enterprise (Taiwan) was used, which was kept 4 m away from the source of the noise and 1 m above the ground to measure the level of the noise generated during different activities at the sawmill. Besides, a lux meter (Lutron) was used for assessing the light or brightness level of different place at the two worksites, i.e. indoors and outdoors.
A two-tailed chi-square test was utilized to find if the test item had any significant association with the feeling of discomfort. In addition, to assess the relationship between various factors and the discomfort felt, their odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed. Next, the computed χ2 was compared with critical χ2 values for the chosen level of significance (p < 0.05). Besides, statistical analysis was performed using Primer of Biostatistics Statistical Software (Primer of Biostatistics 5.0. Msi version).
Results
According to results of the present study, the
experimental subjects, i.e. the sawmill workers, had an average working experience of more than 9 years, while the other group had an average experience in their work of more than 10 years. The daily work schedule included the mean duration of work, i.e. 9.8 and 7.0 hours per day for the sawmill workers and the other group, respectively, and the number of working days was 6 in both groups.
The result of Table 1 shows the discomfort feeling in different parts of the body among the sawmill workers and controls. The questionnaire stated that the sawmill workers felt maximum discomfort (pain) in the lower portion (91%) of the body subsequently the hands (80%), shoulders (76%), knees (64%), upper back (58%), wrists (36%), neck (33%), feet (29%), and elbows (28%). The discomfort (pain) feeling, felt by the sawmillers could have been caused due to the fact that they had to perform a constantly meticulous tasks at the sawmill, which could lead to the feeling of discomfort among them. The table 1 also showed that the sawmillers had a significantly higher prevalence of discomfort feeling (pain) than the controls in different body parts, including the neck (OR=21.16; p=0.000), shoulders (OR=77.27; p=0.000), elbows (OR=50.53; p=0.000), wrists (OR=17.94; p=0.000), hands (OR=61.0; p=0.000), upper back (OR=176.0; p=0.000), lower back (OR=37.3; p=0.000), knees (OR=7.02; p=0.000), ankles (OR= 5.67; p=0.000), and feet (OR=52.40; p=0.000).
Table 1. The feeling of discomfort in different parts of the body among the sawmill workers and the control group
Different body parts |
Sawmill workers |
Control subjects |
|
95% CI |
χ2 value |
P-value |
||
Neck |
45 (33%) |
03 (02%) |
21.16 |
6.37- 70.24 |
40.91 |
P<0.001 |
||
Shoulders |
102 (76%) |
05 (04%) |
77.27 |
29.10- 205.12 |
138.49 |
P<0.001 |
||
Elbows |
38 (28%) |
01 (00%) |
50.53 |
6.81-374.54 |
37.40 |
P<0.001 |
||
Wrists |
49 (36%) |
04 (03%) |
17.94 |
6.24 - 51.56 |
43.62 |
P<0.001 |
||
Hands |
108 (80%) |
08 (06%) |
61.0 |
26.58 – 139.94 |
143.75 |
P<0.001 |
||
Upper back |
78 (58%) |
01 (00%) |
176.52 |
23.96 – 1300.46 |
100.16 |
P<0.001 |
||
Lower back |
123 (91%) |
28 (22%) |
37.33 |
18.07 – 77.12 |
127.95 |
P<0.001 |
||
Knees |
86 (64%) |
26 (20%) |
7.02 |
4.03 – 12.22 |
50.06 |
P<0.001 |
||
Ankles |
11 (08%) |
02 (1.5%) |
5.67 |
1.23 – 26.13 |
4.86 |
P=0.027 |
||
Feet |
39 (29%) |
01 (01%) |
52.40 |
7.07 – 388.19 |
38.69 |
P<0.001 |
The results of this study show that the feeling of discomfort among the sawmill workers was especially high in the body region of Lower back (91%), Hands (80%), shoulders (76%). And knee (64%), which was significantly (P<0.001) high in compare to control subjects. Most of the workers at the sawmill reported the feeling of discomfort when lifting timbers (99%) followed by carrying logs or timbers (98%), processing timbers (76%), moulding timbers in saw fillers (65%), stacking timbers (58%), grinding saw blades (32%), picking and packing saw dust (56%), etc. The results of the study also indicate that due to MMH and working in an inconvenient posture for long time span, the sawmillers felt pain in the different body parts. In addition, the discomfort feeling in the body was significantly difference (p < 0.001) in the experimental group than the controls.
The result of table 2 shows that 282 sample postures collected and analysed from video analysis (Sony Handycam) were used by the 135 sawmill workers. In addition, the results (Table 5) indicate that OWAS action category 4 (corrective measures required immediately) had the highest number of postures (51.1%) followed by action category 3 (corrective measures required as soon as possible) (42.9%). Besides, only 3.9% of the sawmillers postures considered into action category 2 (corrective actions required in the near future), and only 2.1% of the sawmiller postures considered into action category 1 (no corrective measures required). Table 2 shows the results of posture analysis by the OWAS method. The table 2 shows that most of the sawmill activities (lifting timbers, carrying logs or timbers, moulding timbers, and picking saw dust) need strenuous postures (OWAS action category 4), which requires adopting immediate corrective measures. Besides, activities like grinding saw blades and stacking timbers require corrective posture measures as soon as possible (OWAS action category 3).
Table 2. Analysis of different working postures of the sawmill workers by the OWAS method
|
Stick diagram |
Posture |
|
Action category |
Remarks |
Lifting timbers |
|