scholarly journals FARMERS' EXPOSURE TO NOISE AND VIBRATION IN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED FARMS

Author(s):  
Ričardas BUTKUS ◽  
Gediminas VASILIAUSKAS

Occupational noise, hand-arm and whole-body vibration are the main human health risk factors in various economic activity sectors including agriculture. Workers of agricultural sector are usually under increased risk as their exposure to these risk factors is usually longer than reference 8 hours. Moreover, most agricultural activities are related with the processes which include multiple equipment and machinery therefore noise and vibration exposure analysis is a complex issue which is usually undeservedly simplified. This problem can be emphasized by statistical data provided by State Labour Inspectorate of the Republic of Lithuania. Occupational diseases registered for farmers, agricultural and forestry workers consist 16 % of all those registered in Lithuania. Four of five occupational diseases registered in Lithuania are related to vibration and noise (musculoskeletal (66 %) and hearing loss (13 %) and has the increasing tendency over the last years. These tendencies demand a deeper analysis of noise and vibration exposure of farmers and farm workers as obtained results could help to specify the strategy or procedure to reduce negative exposure effects. The results reveal that noise exposure level usually exceed exposure action value of 80 dBA while hand-arm and whole-body vibration exposure limit value of 1.15 and 5 m/s2 respectively.

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Forouhar Majd ◽  
Parvin Nassiri

The evaluation of whole-body vibration in hand - held pneumatic tools (Rock drills) used in the Lashotor stone mines in Isfahan by the method PNEUROP CAGI (compressed air and gas institute) TEST CODE. This shows the methods for the use of construction equipment in stone mines under work circumstances. This method is designed to evaluate noise and vibration propagated by the hand – held pneumatic tools. Rock Drills are categorized as the major sources of noise and vibration by the Federal noise control Act of 1972. The paper demonstrates vibration values in three directions X, Y, Z and the three vital indices for workers while working with equipment, compared to standard graphs, produced by “Rock Drill” used in the above specified test method. This paper focuses on measurement and prediction of whole -body vibration indices in a rock drill used in stone mines using a B & K vibration meter type 2512. In order to evaluate them we had to record the whole-body acceleration on the ground where the operator was standing and processing his work. The indices include reduced comfort (RC), fatigue decreased proficiency (FDP), and exposure level (EL) for a frequency response of 1–80 Hz shown Table I. As can be seen in table I, there are high values of rms acceleration in the Z and XY axes for exposure level and fatigue decreased proficiency, respectively. All values are based in a 5-hour exposure time. Although we found high levels of vibration in different axes, the most important index in comparison with its recommended limits can be exposure level, because it is a better index weighted for human vibration in workplaces. The reduced comfort index is not recommended for occupational and industrial use.


2015 ◽  
Vol 773-774 ◽  
pp. 845-849
Author(s):  
Jalil Azlis-Sani ◽  
Muhammad Firdaus bin Zaid ◽  
Musli Nizam Yahya ◽  
S.M. Sabri S.M. Ismail ◽  
Noor Aqilah Ahmad Tajedi ◽  
...  

A cross sectional study was conducted to evaluate whole body vibration (WBV) and back pain problem among light rail transit (LRT) driver. This study was carried out to determine exposure level of whole body vibration and identify back pain problem due to whole body vibration exposure among LRT driver. Standardized Nordic questionnaire was used for the analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms, to identify the prevalence of back pain, information about health history, working time duration, and working experiences was obtained from 52 drivers of light rail transit (LRT) train. HVM 100 Larson Davis was used to measure whole body vibration measurement of eight LRTs with different vehicle number. The measurement of whole body vibration was done during operation working time. The data collected from HVM 100 were transferred to the Blaze software for getting the vibration magnitude of the experiment while data collected from survey were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for statistical analysis. The analysis of graph patterns and the differentiation of magnitude value from each LRT were studied to determine the exposure level of vibration. A high prevalence of back pain (82.7%) among LRT drivers was found and high daily exposure level was obtained. The finding showed that, there are relations between back pain and daily vibration exposure which resulted in a correlation coefficient of 0.709, with significant at α = 0.05. In conclusion, it was expected that the individuals subjected to the high vibration levels would tend to report back pain.


Ergonomics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (8) ◽  
pp. 1064-1073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoke Zeng ◽  
Aaron M. Kociolek ◽  
Muhammad Idrees Khan ◽  
Stephan Milosavljevic ◽  
Brenna Bath ◽  
...  

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