The Development and Field Testing of an Ergonomic Intervention for the Preparation of Footers in Postframe Building Construction

Details

• Personal Author:
  Knezovich M ; McGlothlin, James D.
• Description:
  The construction work environment is a challenging field for both industry professionals and researchers to improve working conditions in the scope of safety and health. The construction work environment is unique to most work environments in private industry because of its potential to change as work crews progress from job to job. From a standpoint of ergonomics, both identifying and correcting work hazards is often difficult because of these changing work environments. In the past decade, the incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses for construction have been consistently higher than those of private industry despite a trend of reduction for both categories.The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data for 2002 shows an incidence rate of nonfatal occupational illnesses and injuries of 7.1 recordable cases per 100 workers for construction compared with 5.3 recordable cases per 100 workers for private industry. The goals of this study were to (1) develop an ergonomic intervention (a footer pad drop device) designed to reduce lowback disc compression force for a manual material handling task in which a construction crew member lifts and releases concrete footer pads into predrilled holes, (2) determine the estimated effect of the intervention on lowback compression force, (3) determine the effect of the intervention on other work intensity measures such as heart rate and self-reported ratings of perceived exertion, and (4) characterize the pre- and post-intervention mean cycle time associated with the task of interest. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Cardiovascular System Construction Industry Engineering Ergonomics Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Back-injuries Construction Construction-workers Engineering-controls Equipment-design Excretion Force Heart-rate Injury-prevention Manual-controls Manual-lifting Manual-materials-handling Work-performance

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• ISSN:
  1545-9624
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Indiana ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  4
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037318
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Hyg 2007 Feb; 4(2):D10-D14
• Contact Point Address:
  School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2051
• Email:
  jdm3@purdue.edu
• Editor(s):
  Schneider S
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• Performing Organization:
  University of Cincinnati
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:286eceae3209fb058b73a1feb6d34e672e3bf9bf171e6150965d5a15f4f3a0623835a47a2be1137424047d073939088bbe604a12d358100f47f074151c78e5f8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188424/cdc_188424_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.61 MB ]