Quantifying the trunk and humeral postural demands of uranium mine site workers using wearable sensors.

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify and describe humeral and trunk ergonomic exposures across various occupations on a mine site.

Methods: Thirteen mine site workers from 11 different occupations were outfitted with wearable sensors to measure trunk and humeral kinematics during 1-4 natural on-site work tasks. Trunk flexion/extension and humeral elevation 10th, 50th, 90th and 99th percentiles, range, percent time in neutral and extreme posture, rate of movement repetition, mean angular velocity, and percent time working at slow and fast speed were calculated for each work task.

Results: Various degrees of ergonomic exposure were measured in the different occupations and work tasks; however, the housekeeping work was consistently the highest exposure task across many of the outcomes.

Conclusion: Future work should examine strategies for reducing the physical demand in work tasks identified as high exposure.