• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.509-515
• /
• 2011

Objective: The study was performed to suggest factors to consider when making or selecting protective clothing to enhance farmers' health. The purpose of this study was to review and summarize the agricultural safety technology on clothing including hat, gloves, and shoes. Background: The farmers' work clothing has to meet a multitude of requirement. Risk factors in farm-work were identified by previous researches. Agricultural safety clothing needs to be introduced. Method: We reviewed previous papers regarding the agricultural workers' health, safety clothing to protect body from excessive heat and humid environment, ultraviolet(UV) protection, and hazardous body working postures. Also the UV cut effect, pesticideproof clothing, and preventable farm work related musculoskeletal disorders were discussed. Results: The agricultural safety clothing needs to be developed to provide comfort and to be resistant against heat. The UV protection function on skin and eyes has not been fully researched in safety clothing studies yet. Conclusions and Application: The farmers' work-related body posture needs to be studied in order to make and design agricultural safety clothing. The safety issues on agricultural work shoes are also needed to be included in future studies.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.601-607
• /
• 2017

Objective: A method to assess the risk level of agricultural works considering work posture and working time was suggested, and the method was applied to the major fruit crops. Background: It is not complete to analyze only work postures when assessing risk level of agricultural works. Method: $3{\times}3$ matrix was employed, in which the severity level was taken from the REBA method and exposure level was taken from the working time, using the criteria of caution zone/hazard zone. Results: Among the 5 major fruit crops(apple, pear, grape, peach, persimmon), the highest level of ergonomic risk was found in the apple and pear, while medium level was found in other 3 crops, mainly because the working time was less in the 3 crops. Conclusion: It was found that when assessing the overall ergonomic risk of agricultural works, work posture and working time should be considered at the same time. Application: The suggested method could be applied to other non-cyclic tasks.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.481-489
• /
• 2011

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop an ergonomic checklist (AULA: Agricultural Upper-Limb Assessment) which can assess the risks of the work-related upper limb disorders of farming tasks in Korea. Background: There are few assessment tools that reflect the current condition of agricultural works as of now. Method: AULA was developed as following three stages. First of all, a physiological experiment was conducted with selected 14 upper limb postures which are frequently occurred in farming tasks and then, an ergonomic checklist was developed with determining risk levels of each body posture based on the experimental findings. Lastly, the ergonomic checklist was validated by comparing with the existing assessment tools. Results: When comparing the AULA which was developed in this study with the existing assessment tools, it was found that the AULA may get over limits of the existing ones which are sensitive to particular postures, but aren't sensitive to the rest of them. Conclusion: It is predicted that the developed upper limb posture assessment tool which gets over the existing tools' limits and is proper for domestic farm work conditions, will help to reduce musculoskeletal disorders caused by farm works, by assessing farm works more easily and objectively. Application: By further developing the theoretical groundwork on the induction of muscular skeletal system symptoms relating to agricultural works, it is expected to improve the level of preventing and managing such muscular skeletal system symptoms in the field of agricultural and farming works, which is relatively less advanced in terms of labor difficulties.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.193-204
• /
• 2016

Objective: This study carried out base research to build an agricultural safety monitoring system through ICT convergence to reduce safety accidents and enhance welfare in life in the agricultural field. Background: The functions and values of rural villages as the space of living are recognized anew, but occupational accident rate due to farm work accidents is on the rise each year. Therefore, the seriousness of such a problem emerges. The convergence technology combining ICT is recently applied to industries overall, and therefore better services are offered. However, studies on ICT convergence has not yet been applied to the agricultural safety field. Method: This study identified ICT convergence service technology trends and representative serious accident types mainly occurring in agricultural activities. This study defined the major factors of farm work accidents and ICT to solve those accident factors including the sensor technology, wired/wireless communication technology and location information service, and applied them to prototype PCB for the development of an agricultural safety monitoring system. Results: This study proposed an emergency monitoring system for farmers and a harmful environment monitoring system. The ICT technology to prevent farm work accidents can be summarized as sensing technology, ICT and network technology and user interface technology. This study also designed PCB module configuration and situation judgment algorithm as basic research for proposed monitoring system development. Conclusion: The ICT-based agricultural safety monitoring research proposed in this study is expected to become the basis to build a future real time monitoring system, and also is expected to contribute to social safety and welfare service improvement for farmers. Application: The ICT convergence farmer accident prevention system will make contributions to the prevention of serious farm work accidents.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.749-755
• /
• 2011

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the reducing effect of workload on developed electro-motion scissors. Methods: To achieve this, we measured the pressure distribution, Joint angle of fingers and JSI(Job Strain Index) for electro-motion scissors and hand-operated scissor in objective assessment and surveyed the uncomfortable degree in subjective assessment. Results: As a result, The peak of pressure in the electro-motion scissors was generally lower than the hand-operated scissors. JSI and overall joint angle of fingers for the electro-motion scissors were remarkably lower than the hand-operated scissors. Also, the subjective uncomfortable degree showed that the uncomfortable point of electro-motion scissors were generally lower than the hand operated scissors. Conclusion: The impact of reducing the work load as well as distributing the pressure around the hand by using electro-motion scissors during grapes pinching was confirmed.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.7-15
• /
• 2009

The objective of this study is to survey the working environmental conditions and musculoskeletal workload(DMQ) in red pepper farmers. 155 full-time farmers(males=91, females=64) lived in Chungnam and Jeonbuk participated in the study. To offer the fundamental data for agricultural improvement of red pepper farms, information about working farm conditions, health condition, musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs), labor intensity and musculoskeletal workload was obtained by questionnaire and interviews. The results are as follows: 1. The farmers reported sunlights, high temperature and cold/ draught as uncomfortable work environment. 2. Physical and mental fatigue in females is higher than that of males. 3. The prevalence rates of medical diagnosed diseases are higher in order of osteoarthritis, herniated nucleus pulposus(HNP), and chronic gastritis/gastric ulcer. 4. Prevalence rates of musculoskeletal symptoms more than standard 1 among the various pain areas are higher in order of low back, shoulders and knees. These results can be used practically for agricultural improvement of red pepper farms to prevent MSDs.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.495-501
• /
• 2011

The objective of this study was to evaluate the convenience of the tractor seatbelt. We selected four healthy men as subjects. We measured their body pressure and examined the comfort of the seatbelt, while driving 50m on three different types of agricultural road with two types of seatbelts: automatic and manual. As results, when they used manual seatbelt, subjective uncomfortable rate was much higher than the automatic seatbelt on all types of road. Especially, body pressure was undistributed while using manual seatbelt on rough road.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.517-523
• /
• 2011

Objective: The purpose were understanding the epidemiological characteristics of work related injuries of the farmer and establishing injury prevention and control activity. Background: Agriculture is one of the most hazardous industry and job in Korea. Method: We reviewed previous reports regarding the agricultural injury, injury prevention and control. Results: In the agricultural total injury, there were 45,342 hospitalized injury to farmers, injury rate was 35.8/1,000 farmers/years. Of these injuries, 52.6 percent were classed as work related injury. The farm-related injury rate was 17.5/1,000 farmers/years by analysis of Safety Aid System of Farm Workers. There were 2.4 times as incidence rate for farmers compared to non-farmers. Conclusion: Several strategies are available for injury prevention and control. They are as follows; social concern, survey of farm related injury, injury prevention, injury surveillance system and injury compensation.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2016

Objective: This study aimed to find good design for summer functional farm shoes under the agricultural environment and working characteristics, which can help safe farm work and further promote the efficiency of working. Background: Most accidents at farms were overturn accidents caused by slipping or falling, and it was found that the main factors which caused the overturn accidents were inappropriate work shoes for the working conditions. These inappropriate work shoes often cause overturn accidents in the rural areas with steep paths. Method: A survey on work shoes was conducted with 174 farmers, and the outcome of this survey was used to find problems of work shoes and improvement ideas for the design of work shoes which can be used at farms. Results: Regarding the form of farm shoes, the ankle height was set at 6 inches to prevent the bending of the ankle and the inflow of foreign substances. The size and groove of the pattern of the outsole were extended to prevent catching of foreign substances. In the upper part, polyurethane and cordura were used in combination to secure air permeability, which was pointed out as the reason for the discomfort during the work wearing existing work shoes. Conclusion: Since farmers felt discomfort with the shoes which they were currently wearing, this study suggested a design of farm shoes by analyzing the important matters of the work shoes in development in order to improve such discomfort. Application: This study can help develop farm shoes that would practically ease farmers' burden of working at farm worksites and keep them safe.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.225-239
• /
• 2010

A high prevalence of farmer's work-related musculo-skeletal disorders (MSDs) have been reported in precedent studies. Risk factors - physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic risk factor etc. - in farm-work were identified by previous studies. To prevent farmers from exposing to them and reduce, Agricultural Safety Technology were introduced and used on farm. The purpose of this study is to review and summarize the agricultural safety technology on farm in Korea. According to strategy principles, this technology is classified as four criteria - workload reduction by reducing awkward posture, workload reduction by using manual material handling aids, Comfort improvement by protecting worker from hot, cold environment and work efficiency improvement by workplace redesign and cultivation modification. This technology includes transporting tools, working cloth, personal protective equipment, and pesticide-proof Clothing. Anthropometric study of Korean farmers was also carried out to support the development of equipment and clothes. In long terms, it needs to precaution activity from risk factors by using cultivation modification and working improvement. Although working condition gets better and workload reduce by this technology, it required customized safety technology in each crops - rice cultivation, horticulture and livestock farming. And farmers should use the assistive technology and participate voluntarily in ergonomic intervention program.