Occupational Health With Emphasis On Muscle Load Assessment Using Objective And Subjective Assessment Techniques

ObjectiveThe purpose was to learn occupational health practice in China, through participating in thelocal health surveillance work.MethodsVisiting the Wuhan Institute of Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment(IODPT_Wuhan) and taking part in the field investigations in some industries.ResultsIODPT_Wuhan is the body that is authorized to evaluate and determine whether thecompanies abide by the country laws and regulations of occupational health. It includes minihospital for occupational diseases, Physical Examination, Work Environmental Monitoring,Analytical Laboratory, Occupational Disease Diagnosis and transport department. Theinstitute has about140employees and has finished twenty projects; it monitors about160enterprises annually.Sampling data for chemical and physical agents from a modern industry Di YuanOptoelectronics Technology Company, light emitting diodes (LEDs) manufacturing companywere summarised as an example. Comparing to Occupational Exposure Limits, most of thesubstances were within the limits expect for carbon tetrachloride which had high values insome day at Chip production line evaporation area gas sources storage inspection unit andalso one sample observed a high concentration for the carbon tetrachloride at the Chipproduction line evaporation area etching. Moreover, some physical and ergonomic hazardfactors were also identified through the exposure assessment, i.e., noise at the coolingequipment inspection unit was at a level ranging from83to84dB (A), insufficient lighting atthe quality control working site, neck bending for hours was mainly adopted working posture. ConclusionSome experience in the area of occupational health was gathered through the practice. Fromthe data analysis, preventive measures were suggested for the industry such as localventilation to reduce the chemical concentration, hearing personal protection equipmentnecessity for noise exposure even at the margin of the limit, a need ergonomic re-designednew lighting system for quality checking. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine whether there exist risk factors which lead tomusculoskeletal disorders in the LED production workshops using QEC.MethodsAt the production site39subjects were randomly observed and assessed; the data analysiswas done using data for only34subjects which were complete. The exposure scores werecomputed then data analysis was carried out using SPSS18and SAS9.1softwares.ResultsThe results indicated that there are high risk factors for the upper body region, the backshows high risk levels (23.47±2.38) and the neck has the very high level (15.53±2.46) ofexposure, with the other body parts showing moderate exposure. The overall exposure is55.1%which implies overall exposure is too high and the action that is associated with thatvalue is the need for further investigation and change of workplace design.ConclusionThe work task involved in the production of LED subjects workers to musculoskeletal riskfactors. There is a need for workplace redesigning and the workers must be trained for theadoption good postures when working. The aim was to determine which weight carrying technique is the best of preferablecomparing the objective and subjective assessment outcomes.Method14students volunteered to be included in the study and they were requested to carry7.6kg ofrice by head and by one hand (left and right hands respectively) and3.8kg carry on bothhands simultaneous. EMG signals were collected concurrently from the midline trapeziusmuscles and the L3level of the erector spinae. Borg scale was used for the subjectiveassessment.ResultsThe weight carrying methods seemed to activate the left trapezius in a roughly the same wayexpect for the weight carrying with right hand, which has less mean value which issignificantly different for those of the other techniques. JASA results revealed the behaviourof the EMG throughout five minutes with one point representing the temporal change in oneminute. Weight carrying by head observed the fatigue only for the trapezius muscles with onecount for both muscles, weight carrying with left hand observed two counts of fatigue forboth the left trapezius and left erector spinae. Weight carrying with right hand indicates onecount of fatigue for left trapezius and left erector spinae. While the weight carrying with bothhands has three counts of fatigue for the left trapezius, two counts for the right trapezius andone count right erector spinae. The Borg scale rating mean scores for weight carrying by headwas lower and significantly different from the means of other techniques which happen tohave means which are not different at the significance of95%.ConclusionIt can be concluded that the weight carrying by head is the better method of carrying thingsbased on the EMG fatigue analysis and the perceived exertion using Borg scale. However theweight used was a very lower hence the further investigation might be vital.