Assessment of Fall Potential Associated with Drywall Lifting

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cantis D ; Chiou S ; Long D ; Pan, Christopher S. ; Zwiener JZ
• Description:
  Drywall installers are at high risks for occupational fall injuries according to data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics. Handling bulky and massive drywall sheets not only exposes the workers to ergonomics risks of forceful exertion and awkward postures, but also places excessive demands on workers' postural balance. Lifting heavy drywall sheets is likely to shift the body's center of mass (COM) away from the center of base of support, thereby increasing the probability of fall. This study was performed to investigate the effect of different lifting methods on the motion of the whole body's COM. Motion data were collected with a set of 22 markers to compute the kinematics of the whole body's COM. Two methods - horizontal lift of drywall with both hands positioned on the bottom of the drywall and horizontal lift of drywall with one hand positioned on the top and one hand on the bottom of drywall, resulted in greater and faster COM motion than other lifting methods. Results from this study indicate that lifting a drywall sheet using these two methods places greater demands on dynamic balance control than other methods. Future studies are needed to examine the COM motion in relation to the base of support and moment patterns at ankle, knee, and hip while lifting drywall, to provide further insights on the postural balance mechanism during drywall lifting. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Construction Materials Ergonomics Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Construction Industry Construction Materials Construction Workers Manual Lifting Manual Materials Handling Materials Handling
• ISBN:
  9781586031749
• ISSN:
  1384-2269
• Publisher:
  IOS Press
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; 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:
  55-61
• Volume:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20021277
• Citation:
  Advances in Occupational Ergonomics and Safety: XVth Annual Conference of the International Society for Occupational Ergonomics and Safety, June 4 - 7, 2001, Fairfax, Virgina. Bittner AC Jr., Champney PC, Morrissey SJ, eds. Washington, DC: IOS Press, 2001 Jan; 4:55-61
• Contact Point Address:
  Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1095 Willowdale Rd., Morgantown, WV 26505
• Editor(s):
  Bittner AC Jr.; Champney PC; Morrissey SJ
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2001
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Advances in Occupational Ergonomics and Safety: XVth Annual Conference of the International Society for Occupational Ergonomics and Safety, June 4 - 7, 2001, Fairfax, Virgina
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:42c19da00a08e658a11e902dbae92ed86624a2198791c1cfc6882727296510b7c41eac1a55dbe8842ceed8f3a399acfd11184a6dea37a1ae7976e1c6023f01aa
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/198671/cdc_198671_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 249.47 KB ]