• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2024

Objectives: This study was performed to evaluate the musculoskeletal symptoms of workers treating electronics industry waste at a recycling sorting plant by case survey. Methods: The musculoskeletal symptoms were investigated by conducting a survey targeting workers treating waste from the electronics industry. Through utilizing the ergonomic evaluation techniques such as RULA, REBA, and OWAS, the four tasks were divided into three detailed processes (sorting, movement, loading) and the work of workers was evaluated for a total of 12 processes. Results: As a result of the questionnaire survey on musculoskeletal symptom, 40% of workers answered that they had musculoskeletal disease symptoms, and the symptom sites were hands(30%), legs(20%), arms(10%), and shoulders(5%). Based on the results obtained from analysis through ergonomic evaluation techniques such as RULA, REBA, and OWAS, 75% of them were found to need improvement or follow-up immediately or immediately after the second stage or higher. As compared to REBA and OWAS, the RULA, which evaluates the upper limb in detail, has a higher score, and in the process of sorting and loading relatively light wastes such as paper and plastic, the waist is raised by repeating the work of bowing and stretching. Conclusions: The heavy wastes such as 200L drums were evaluated as having a low load on the elbows and wrists because body action was relatively lower than moving paper and plastic. In addition, the overall load score was evaluated lower in the moving work compared to the sorting or loading process.