Improving Vessel Equipment: Evaluating Fishermen-Led Safety Design Ideas in the Dungeness Crab Fleet

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kim JH ; Kincl, Laurel
• Description:
  The West Coast Dungeness crab fleet suffers from a high incident rate and prevalence of both fatal and non-fatal injuries and is considered one of the highest-risk commercial fishing fleets in the US. Our recent NIOSH-funded study, the Fishermen Led Injury Prevention Program (FLIPP), indicates the significance of nonfatal injuries among this commercial fishing fleet. The FLIPP survey showed that the majority of limiting nonfatal injuries (88%) occurred with deckhands and that the most common injuries were sprains and strains (36%). Most of these injuries were associated with handling, hauling, and setting crab pots (72%), which posed forceful exertions, awkward postures, and repetitive motions. Moreover, these physical risk factors could potentially increase fall risks (potentially falls overboard, which are a major source of fatal injuries in commercial fishing) as muscular fatigue is known to increase a risk of fall. Previous studies have focused on fatality prevention while non-fatal injuries, and especially musculoskeletal disorders, have been understudied. There is a critical need to evaluate risks for non-fatal injuries and potential injury prevention measures. Feedback collected in FLIPP provided an idea for an engineering control to reduce the aforementioned physical risk factors related to handling crab pots. This fishermen-led engineering control referred to as a "banger bar" adds padding and a bar to the sorting table so that a retrieved pot can be tipped and banged against it to release the crab. Its primary potential benefits include reduction of awkward postures, forceful exertions, and repetitive motions. Moreover, this engineering control could potentially lower fall risks. Despite the potential benefits, this engineering control might affect productivity and introduce other potential risks such as pinch point hazards. However, we do not have scientific evidence on the efficacy of the engineering control (i.e., banger bar) in reducing the physical risk factors and fall risks during handling crab pots during harvesting. To fill this critical research gap, our objectives are to quantify the impact of crab pot handling on biomechanical risk and postural balance (fall risk), understand how this impact can be mitigated by the engineering control (i.e., banger bar), and identify the factors related to designing for broad use since all vessels, decks and sorting tables vary in design and size. The anticipated impact of this research is the improvement of commercial fishermen's occupational health and safety by reducing physical risk factors and related non-fatal injuries (musculoskeletal disorders) and fatality (fall-related injuries), which also addresses and supports the current NOFO purpose and NORA priorities. To achieve our research objectives, we propose the following specific aims: Aim 1. Characterize the current vessel environment, crab pot manual handling activity, standard work practice, and anthropometry of pacific northwest crab fishermen. By building on the existing data collected from the FLIPP study and completing field studies, we will 1) characterize vessels, crab sorting tables, banger bars, blocks (cranes on vessel), and crab pots to document the distribution of their characteristics, 2) document standard work practices (the frequency and duty cycle of tasks, and fishermen's body postures) during crab pot manual handing activity, and 3) collect anthropometric data and grip strength of crab fishermen. In addition, these field studies can be used to identify other safety features or equipment used on deck. Aim 2: Characterize the biomechanical and fall risk during simulated crab harvesting tasks and evaluate the efficacy of a fishermen-led engineering control in reducing the biomechanical and fall risks. In a repeated-measures laboratory experiment with 25 subjects, we will 1) characterize the biomechanical (hand pull force, joint torque and muscle activity in the upper extremity and low back, and the subjective rating of exertion) and fall risk (postural balance) during simulated crab harvesting tasks, and 2) evaluate the efficacy of a fishermen-led engineering control (i.e., banger bar) by comparing the biomechanical and fall risk measures between the crab harvesting tasks with and without the engineering control. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Biomechanical Phenomena Engineering Hunting Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Biomechanics Engineering Controls Falls Fishing Industry Injuries Injury Prevention MSD Musculoskeletal Disorders Posture Repetitive Work Work Practices

  More +
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Final Cooperative Agreement Report
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067237
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U01-OH-011927, 2022 Nov; :1-6
• Contact Point Address:
  Jeong Ho Kim, PhD, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-2140
• Email:
  jay.kim@oregonstate.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• Performing Organization:
  Oregon State University, Corvallis
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20190901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20210831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2563e2bd5de4dc2d16c4d3f955c5fd37e2ba5a69ada49ed52645da4952833f652bcd2262c9c388719df405572db1411227e82d2bccf55b60d8173fa4121d427f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219189/cdc_219189_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 175.31 KB ]