Whole body vibration exposures among professional bus drivers: a comparison of low floor bus designs

Details

• Personal Author:
  Blood R ; Johnson P ; Lewis C ; Rynell P ; Thamsuwan O
• Description:
  Objective: The goal of this study was to compare whole-body vibration (WBV) exposures among professional drivers between two low floor bus (LFB) designs commonly used in public transit. Research has indicated there is a relationship between working as a transit operator and the development of low back pain. Methods: Using a repeated measures design and a standardized test route, whole body vibration exposures were compared when sixteen experienced professional bus drivers drove two buses 1) 40' LFB, and 2) 60' articulating LFB. The test route included a segment of driving on city streets, a section of new freeway, a section of old freeway, and a section of roadway that included ten uniform speed humps in King County, Washington, USA. The route was designed with input from the transit agency to simulate a typical day of exposures faced by professional transit operators. A tri-axial seat pad accelerometer was mounted on the driver's seat and a second tri-axial accelerometer was securely mounted on the floor of the bus directly adjacent to the seat. A WBV data acquisition system was used to collect time weighted average (Aw, VDV) and raw (Sed) WBV measurements at the seat and floor. Results: When comparing LFB designs there were parameter dependent differences in WBV exposures with the 60' articulating LFB resulting in higher WBV exposures relative to the 40' LFB. Additionally, there were differences in WBV exposures by road segment between bus designs. Conclusions: When purchasing buses for transit operations it is essential that employers consider the associated WBV exposure differences between bus designs in order to reduce injury cases. The results of this study indicated that 60' articulating low floor buses produce significantly higher WBV exposures than 40' low floor buses. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Automobiles Men Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Vibration Women
• Keywords:
  Back-injuries Bus-drivers Drivers Exposure-levels Humans Motor-vehicles Risk-factors Vibration-effects Vibration-exposure Workers
• Publisher:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  32-33
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047088
• Citation:
  AIHce 2012: American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, June 16-21, 2012, Indianapolis, Indiana. Falls Church, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2012 Jun; :32-33
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• NORA Priority Area:
  Transportation, Warehousing and Utilities
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20080901
• Source Full Name:
  AIHce 2012: American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, June 16-21, 2012, Indianapolis, Indiana
• End Date:
  20130831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ca89a92d0ff12152d13df44f5be33072fd5ddc4d34f341e52960d267eb628b46275eff8c217a52af60db2f9a2c710b993daa0201db503097b01e9e89b7f0cc0d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202289/cdc_202289_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 176.75 KB ]