Vol. 7, Issue 7 (2018)

Author(s):
Komal, Kanchan Shilla and Sudesh Gandhi

Abstract:
India is one of the most populated countries in the world and most of the people engaged in the manual work in construction, agriculture and in the informal work. Workers engaged in manual material handling tasks claimed for body stress, sprains/strains, fractures and discomforts of the musculoskeletal system. Therefore, the present study was conducted in animal feed factory in Hisar city on 50 respondents, to study the health hazards among loader/lifters due to loading or lifting. Data was collected by using of the interview schedule and observation sheet. Human body map was used for assessing the discomfort level in the different body part and Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) were used to evaluate the different body postures adopted by the workers engaged in loading and lifting. It has been concluded that workers were involved in the loading, lifting, carrying and holding activities and faced the back and shoulder pain problem during the loading and lifting activities. Lower back, legs and shoulders were the most affected part of the body of workers and lifting activity required the corrective measures immediately due to very high risk on the health of workers. There was a need to change their postures and used some equipment or tools which can be helpful in decreasing the health hazards faced by the workers engaged in manual materials handling tasks such as loading and lifting activities.