The Effect of Drywall Lifting Method on Workers’ Balance in a Laboratory-Based Simulation

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chiou S ; Hendricks S ; Pan, Christopher S.
• Description:
  Voluntary body movement can import a perturbation to the postural stability/balance of a human body. Heavy manual material handling such as drywall lifting may increase this perturbation. The objective of this laboratory-based study was to quantify workers' postural stability while lifting drywall sheets through kinetic and kinematic analyses, and to identify the drywall lifting methods that caused the least perturbation on workers' balance. Sixty male construction workers participated in this study. A simulated drywall-lifting workstation was built and all subjects performed one of the four randomly assigned lifting methods. Kinetic and kinematic measurements were synchronized and collected using a piezoelectric force platform and a five-camera motion analysis system. Both center-of-pressure (COP) and center-of-mass (COM) data were analyzed to assess workers' postural stability. Univariate analyses and principal component analyses (PCA) were used to analyze 13 COP-based and 21 COM-based variables. Results from the univariate analyses and PCA significantly indicated that the three horizontal lifting methods created less perturbation than the vertical lifting method. Based on the results of this study and prior studies, it is concluded that horizontal lifting with both hands on top of the drywall appears to be the best work practice to reduce manual drywall handling hazards associated with fall potential and overexertion injuries. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Construction Materials Ergonomics Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Drywall Center-of-mass Center-of-pressure Construction Construction-industry Construction-materials Construction-workers Kinematics Kinetics Lifting Manual-lifting Manual-materials-handling Materials-handling Materials-handling-equipment

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• ISSN:
  1359-9364
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  235-249
• Volume:
  3
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20024460
• Citation:
  Occup Ergon 2003 Dec; 3(4):235-249
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• NORA Priority Area:
  Disease and Injury: Traumatic Injuries
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational Ergonomics
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b0efdffe90b3a7d9eaf6bdb1a07565147e02980505e65cfdd6adf40037b83e48532642df2a3c7ceafd8bf79736fade6264fef1d81df67e0778595d49df3607d3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/196256/cdc_196256_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.94 MB ]