Evaluation of seating alternatives to reduce WBV in professional on-road vehicle operators.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ibbotson-Brown J ; Johnson PW ; Thamsuwan O
• Description:
  Purposes: Air suspension seats have been the standard seats used by most on-road professional vehicle drivers for the past 30 years. However, one challenge is that under some circumstances (e.g. going over small road perturbations at high speeds or large perturbations at low speeds) the air suspension seat can amplify rather than attenuate the whole body vibration (WBV) exposures. In addition, the current foam used in most seats is prone to low frequency resonance and can wear out, both of these factors can increase and/or amplify WBV exposures. As an alternative, height adjustable, static pedestal seats may be less prone to some of the problems associated with air-suspension seats. In addition, a recently developed integrated air-bladder seat cushion may have superior WBV attenuation performance compared to foam. Therefore, the two purposes of this study were to determine whether there were WBV attenuation and performance differences between: 1) an air-suspension and a height-adjustable, static pedestal seat and 2) between the standard foam used in most seats and a new, integrated air-bladder seat cushion. Methods: Sixteen bus drivers drove a 12.1 meter low floor coach bus over a standardized 60 km route four different times and z-axis average weighted WBV exposures were measured and compared between the two different seats (air-ride and static-pedestal) and between the two different seat cushion treatments (stock foam and integrated air-bladder cushion). Results: There were road-dependent performance differences between the two seats and the two cushion types. When travelling at moderate speeds on city streets and freeways, the WBV exposures were attenuated and 7 +/-2% (p < 0.05) lower with the pedestal seat. When comparing seat treatments, independent of seat type, the air-bladder cushion reduced WBV exposures by 24 +/-2% (p < 0.0001) relative to the seat's stock foam. When the buses traveled at low speeds over 12m long by 0.10 m high speed humps, both seat types amplified WBV exposures, but WBV exposures were 68 +/-10% (p < 0.10) lower with the air-suspension seat. Conclusions: It appears there may be viable and better performing seating options for on-road professional vehicle operators than the current, industry-standard, foam padded, air-suspension seat. If vehicles predominantly travel on paved roads at moderate to high speeds, the static, height-adjustable pedestal seat with an air bladder cushion may reduce a driver's WBV exposures by up to one-third relative to an air-suspension seat with foam padding. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Automobiles Construction Industry Men Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Vibration Women
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Low Back Pain; Seat Design; Whole Body Vibration Vibration; Vibration-exposure; Vibration-effects; Motor-vehicles; Drivers; Equipment-design; Road-surfacing; Exposure-levels; Risk-factors; Humans; Men; Women; Statistical-analysis; Equipment-operators; Equipment-reliability; Back-injuries;
• Publisher:
  International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH)
• 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
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047107
• Citation:
  Eighth International Scientific Conference on Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (PREMUS 2013), July 7-11, 2013 Busan, Korea. Rome, Italy: International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), 2013 Jul; :168
• Email:
  petej@uw.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Transportation, Warehousing and Utilities
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20080901
• Source Full Name:
  Eighth International Scientific Conference on Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (PREMUS 2013), July 7-11, 2013 Busan, Korea
• End Date:
  20130831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/245948/cdc_245948_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 168.02 KB ]