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Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy)

Occupational logging activities expose workers to a wide range of risk factors, such as lifting heavy loads, prolonged, awkward positioning of the lower back, repetitive movements, and insufficient work pauses. Body posture has an important impact on the level of physiological load. The present stud...

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Autores principales: Masci, Federica, Spatari, Giovanna, Bortolotti, Sara, Giorgianni, Concetto Mario, Antonangeli, Laura Maria, Rosecrance, John, Colosio, Claudio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9265621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35805360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137695
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author Masci, Federica
Spatari, Giovanna
Bortolotti, Sara
Giorgianni, Concetto Mario
Antonangeli, Laura Maria
Rosecrance, John
Colosio, Claudio
author_facet Masci, Federica
Spatari, Giovanna
Bortolotti, Sara
Giorgianni, Concetto Mario
Antonangeli, Laura Maria
Rosecrance, John
Colosio, Claudio
author_sort Masci, Federica
collection PubMed
description Occupational logging activities expose workers to a wide range of risk factors, such as lifting heavy loads, prolonged, awkward positioning of the lower back, repetitive movements, and insufficient work pauses. Body posture has an important impact on the level of physiological load. The present study involved a group of 40 loggers in the province of Enna (Sicily, Italy) with the aim of defining the impact of logging activities on the workers’ physiological strain during the three primary work tasks of felling, delimbing, and bucking. The Zephyr Bioharness measurement system was used to record trunk posture and heart rate data during work tasks. The NASA TLX questionnaire was used to explore workers’ effort perception of the work tasks. Based on our results, the most demanding work task was tree felling, which requires a higher level of cardiac cost and longer periods spent in awkward trunk postures. The perceived physiological workload was consistently underestimated, especially by the more experienced loggers. Lastly, as the weight of the chainsaw increased, the cardiac load increased.
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spelling pubmed-92656212022-07-09 Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy) Masci, Federica Spatari, Giovanna Bortolotti, Sara Giorgianni, Concetto Mario Antonangeli, Laura Maria Rosecrance, John Colosio, Claudio Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Occupational logging activities expose workers to a wide range of risk factors, such as lifting heavy loads, prolonged, awkward positioning of the lower back, repetitive movements, and insufficient work pauses. Body posture has an important impact on the level of physiological load. The present study involved a group of 40 loggers in the province of Enna (Sicily, Italy) with the aim of defining the impact of logging activities on the workers’ physiological strain during the three primary work tasks of felling, delimbing, and bucking. The Zephyr Bioharness measurement system was used to record trunk posture and heart rate data during work tasks. The NASA TLX questionnaire was used to explore workers’ effort perception of the work tasks. Based on our results, the most demanding work task was tree felling, which requires a higher level of cardiac cost and longer periods spent in awkward trunk postures. The perceived physiological workload was consistently underestimated, especially by the more experienced loggers. Lastly, as the weight of the chainsaw increased, the cardiac load increased. MDPI 2022-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9265621/ /pubmed/35805360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137695 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Masci, Federica
Spatari, Giovanna
Bortolotti, Sara
Giorgianni, Concetto Mario
Antonangeli, Laura Maria
Rosecrance, John
Colosio, Claudio
Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy)
title Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy)
title_full Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy)
title_fullStr Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy)
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy)
title_short Assessing the Impact of Work Activities on the Physiological Load in a Sample of Loggers in Sicily (Italy)
title_sort assessing the impact of work activities on the physiological load in a sample of loggers in sicily (italy)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9265621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35805360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137695
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