Physiological viewpoint of the recommended safe weights of load for manual materials handling tasks

인력물자취급의 권장안전하중에 대한 생리학적 고찰

The objective of this study was to make a comparison of the oxygen consumption rates during the lifting activities and the physiological criteria of the recommended weights of RWL, AL, and MPL by NIOSH Guideline. The physical Work Capacity (PWC) based on the bicycle ergometer was 2562.71ml/min, and the one based on the treadmill was 2874.89ml/min for the college male students of Korea. Lifting activities with four different lifting frequencies(2, 5, 8, 11 lifts/min) for one lifting range from floor to 76cm height were studied. The oxygen consumption rates and the heart rates were measured or recorded while subjects were lifting the weight of RWL, AL, and MPL. The heart rates and the oxygen consumption rates increased as the frequency increased from 2 to lifts/min. However, those slightly decreased at the frequency of 11 lifts/ min. The measured oxygen consumption rates were ranging from 2.3% to 29.6% higher than the physiological criteria 620, 700, and 1000ml/min, respectively, of the RWL, AL, and MPL for all the lifting frequencies (5, 8, 11 lift/min) except 2 lifts/min. It si suggested that the physiological criteria of NIOSH Guideline should be based on the lifting PWC, which can consider the type of lifting activity and the frequency of the task, rather than using the PWC by ergometer or treadmill. The measured oxygen consumption rates were ranging from 13.26% to 40.11% higher than the values estimated using the models by Garg and Kim. From these findings it is suggested that the NIOSH Equation should not be directly applied to Korean without resonable modifications.