Conferência Internacional AHFE 2022 – Nova York, EUA
Assessment of Risk Factors of Upper–limb Musculoskeletal Disorders in a Fish Processing Industry
Diogo Cunha dos Reis & Antônio Renato Pereira Moro
Federal University of Santa Catarina Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
The aim of this study was to evaluate the risks in relation to the workers’ repetitive upper–limb movements, as well as analyze the effects of a reduced work pace on the risk levels in a fish processing industry. The study was conducted in a Brazilian fish processing industry with 1,900 workers, who were divided into two work shifts. The OCRA checklist was used to assess 10% of the total workforce during work tasks. The 13 main work tasks (homogeneous groups) of the productive sector were analyzed. The occupational repetitive actions performed by workers were 81.5 ± 19.2 per minute, representing 10 points on the OCRA scale (0–to–10–point scale). The average OCRA checklist score was 18.4 ± 2.9 (moderate risk). The scores for the right upper limb (18.3 ± 2.8 – moderate risk) were significantly higher than the contralateral limb (16.0 ± 4.2 – moderate risk) (p = 0.014). Considering the five risk categories proposed by the OCRA method, 12 tasks were deemed moderate risk (92%) and 1 low risk level (8%). Due to the predominance of the highly repetitive upper–limb movements in fish processing work, and previous studies suggesting a reduced work pace to prevent UL–WMSDs, simulations of a pace with very low risk levels were carried out utilizing the OCRA checklist. By conducting these simulated interventions, it was possible to reduce the UL–WMSD risk to very low levels in all tasks by only decreasing the work pace (–42.8 ± 17.7%). These results suggest that most of the tasks that workers performed were classified as moderate risk, predisposing workers to a greater probability of developing UL–WMSDs (10.8 to 21.5%) than the population that was not exposed. Simulations of a reduced work pace showed the effectiveness of this organizational measure in lowering the risk of UL–WMSDs.
Keywords: Risk Assessment, Ergonomics, Work Pace, Fish Processing, OCRA
