• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.119-124
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• 2009

Purpose: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) lifting equation (NLE) is a useful tool to ergonomically analyze a workload. The NLE has high reliability and it can assess tasks by analyzing the work process. The purpose of this case study was to try using the NLE to analyze the workload of transferring patients by physical therapists in the hospital setting. Methods: We observed a physical therapist (PT) transferring patients from a wheelchair to a tilt table and a therapeutic table in one day. Two types of patient transferring methods were evaluated; (1) the manual single person method of stand, pivot and transfer, and (2) manual two person lifting under the thigh and grasping the waist for totally dependent patients. Results: The NIOSH lifting indexes of a person grasping the waist during the manual two person lifting were 5.52~4.48 according to the patient's weight. The NIOSH lifting indexes were 3.34 and 4.48 for the tasks performed by the manual single person method. Conclusion: Because transferring patients is not done very frequently, patients transferring tasks by a PT are not included as one of the musculoskeletal disorder related risky work criteria of the Korea Ministry of Labor. But the NIOSH lifting indexes of a person grasping the waist during the manual two person lifting and the manual single person method were over the NIOSH recommended weight limit threshold.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.36
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• pp.1-11
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• 1995

Manual lifting, as a part of manual materials handling activities, is recognized by authorities in the fields of occupational health and safety as a major hazards to industrial workers. In order to minimize the injuries caused by manual material handling activities as well as maximize job productivity, it is important to determine the maximum weights. This paper presents the optimal combination of membership functions according to the high lifting frequency and determines the safe maximum acceptable weights in manual lifting activities through the actual experiment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.82-90
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• 1993

Manual lifting, as a part of Manual Materials Handling Activities, is recognized by authorities in the field of occupational health and safety as a major hazard to industrial workers. The most important problem in applying fuzzy model of manual materials lifting is the decision of membership functions on each approaches. : Biomechanical, Physiological, Psychophysical. The primary objectives of this paper suggests to process deciding the most acceptable membership functions for establishing permissible weights on manual lifting activities using fuzzy sets.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.17-31
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• 2003

Many risk factors with the onset of Low Back Pain(LBP) have been identified, however, lifting out of Manual Material Handling(MMH) was the most important factor to the LBP. Injuries due to lifting took account for 34.0%(227,291) out of the total overexertion in MMH(668,084). The weight, vertical location, twist angle, lifting frequency, and lifting posture were reviewed in this study. Technical information for using the revised lifting equation to evaluate a variety of two - handled manual material handling tasks was suggested. To measure worker's fatigue in lifting task, Lifting Index Simulator(LIS) was create under the revised NIOSH(National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) lifting equation. For the implementation of the LIS, data was collected in A company manufactures various paints in Si-Wha industrial complex, Kyunggi-Do. The results of the Lifting Index(LI) were analyzed by MANOVA to find the relation with lifting variables collected. It was found that horizontal distance, vertical distance, travelling distance and frequency were significant at the 0.01 level and weight was significant at the 0.05 level. The purpose of this paper is to reduce the chronical low back pain for the manual material handlers.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1992.10a
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• pp.18-21
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• 1992

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of fatigue, caused by frequent manual lifting, on lifting velocity and lifting acceleration. Ten male volunteers performed lifting at a rate of 4 times per minute, continuously, for two hours using the free-style posture. A box $(30cm{\times}30cm{\times}20cm)$ with a fixed weight (15.9kg) was used as the load for lifting. Heart rate, oxygen consumption, and EMG were also measured to estimate the level of fatigue. The posture as well as acceleration was recorded. The results show that the lifting acceleration at the end of two hour increased significantly (20%, p<0.001) compared to the accleration after fifteen minutes of lifting. It was also found that subjects changed their lifting postures as the result of fatigue. All subjects also indicated pain in their upper legs and the lower back at the conclusion of the experiment.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.90-98
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• 2008

This research selects the lifting task to be the main subject. Four experiments were designed to measure which among lifting postures, lifting heights, waist-belt, and breathing control significantly influences intra-abdominal pressure (Gallagher, 1991; Lavender, Andersson and Natarajan, 1999). The experimental results were taken to be the recommendations of the manual materials handling work design. The research findings reveal that the symmetrical stoop posture is the most significant to the intra-abdominal pressure within all lifting postures. When the lifting height is increased, the intra-abdominal pressure produced relatively goes up. Also, the combination of symmetrical stoop posture, waist-belt use, and inspiration and holding at the same time is the most efficient in carrying out lifting tasks. Simultaneously, the research discovers that for any posture, the volume of the intra-abdominal pressure is much bigger when using the waist-belt compared to when it is not used. Therefore, the waist-belt design for the lifting works might be the future research approach.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.35-44
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• 2007

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are a major problem in industries in which manual materials handling is performed by workers. To prevent these WMSDs, it is necessary to understand the muscular strength capability and use this knowledge to design job and selection and assignment of workers. Even though two-hands lifting activity of manual materials handling tasks are prevalent at the industrial site, many manual materials handling tasks which require the worker to perform one-hand lifting are also very common at the industrial site and forestry and farming. However, a few researches have been done for one-hand lifting activity of manual materials handling tasks. The objective of this study is to compare one-hand and two-hands lifting strength in terms of static and dynamic strength of the lifting activity for the ranging from the height of knuckle to elbow. It is shown in this study that the isometric lifting strength of one-hand is ranging from 54.7 to 63.3% of the one of two-hands. However, it is found that there is no significant difference between a person's isometric lifting strength for left-hand and right-hand. It is also shown that there is no significant difference between the peak force under the dynamic sub-maximal loading with one-hand and two-hands lifting activity. Similar results were obtained for the peak acceleration and peak velocity under the dynamic sub-maximal loading with one-hand and two-hands lifting activity. Isometric lifting strength at the height of knuckle was ranging from 2 to 3 times of the dynamic peak force during sub-maximal lifting. It is concluded that the dynamic peak forces under the sub-maximal loading are not highly correlated with the isometric lifting strength in similar postures.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 1998

Work-related Low Back Pain(LBP) is one of tile most important Issues in the field of industrial safety and health. Particularly, manual lifting is known as a major cause of work-related LBP and impairment. Total number of 163 manual lifting tasks in motor assembly processes were investigated. The 1981 and the 1994 equations developed by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH) were applied to evaluate potential hazards of lifting-related LBP. Comparisons between the 19R I and 1994 NIOSH criteria were made. The relationships between the NIOSH criteria and lifting-related LBP were also analyzed. The results of this study are as follows: 1. The values of Action Limit(AL) by the NIOSH 1981 lifting equation. Recommended Weight Limit(RWL) by the 1994 equation and the weight of the load handled at each manual lifting task were shown log-normal distributions. 2. LI'(the weight of tile load/AL) and LI(the weight of the load/RWL) were calculated estimate the physical stress imposed by each individual lifting task. As a result. 76.7% of the total LI' value exceeded 1 and 12.9% exceeded 3, and 84.7% of the total LI values exceeded 1 and 20.9% exceeded 3. 3. Bus 2 Department showed the highest rate of LI'>1 and LI>1 and Bus 1 Department showed the highest rate of LI'>3 and LI>3 4. In general, the RWLs by the 1994 equation were found lower than the ALs by the 1981 equation. It is assumed to he resulted from the fact that the 1994 equation includes methods evaluating asymmetrical lifting tasks and lifts of objects with less then optimal hand-container couplings, and also covers a larger range of work durations and lifting frequencies than the 1981 equation. 5. Significant correlations were found between LI' and incidence of LBP (R=0.734, p<0.05). LI and incidence of LBP(R=0.671. p<0.10) and load-weights and incidence of LBP(R=0.797, p<0.05). 6. Control measures are required to achieve the value of LI less than 1 for some tasks having high LI values. Engineering control is highly recommended for some tasks having the value of LI above 3.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2002

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of fatigue, caused by frequent manual lifting. on lifting velocity and lifting acceleration. Ten male volunteers performed lifting at a rate of 4 times per minute, continuously, for two hours using the free-style posture A box($30cm{\times}30cm{\times}20$) with a fixed weight (15.9 Kg) was used as the load for lifting, Heart rate, oxygen consumption, and EMG were also measured to estimate the level of fatigue, The posture as well as acceleration was recorded. The results showed that the lifting acceleration at the end of two hour increased significantly (20%, p<0.001) compared to the acceleration after fifteen minutes of lifting. It was also found that subjects changed their lifting postures as the result of fatigue. All subjects also indicated pain in their upper legs and the lower back at the conclusion of the experiment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.284-289
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• 2006

In 2003, Korean government made the 11 scopes of overburdened work[Ministry of Labor(MOL), Notification No. 2003-24] to prevent musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs). MOL Notification was established based on 'Washington Administrative Code 296-62-051, Ergonomics'. When initially investigating the contents, the labor unions and the specialists pointed out the possibility of devaluation on risk factors of MSDs. The present study aimed to compare the result of the NIOSH revised lifting equation(NLE) analysis with the MOL Notification(No.8, 9, 10) on manual lifting tasks. A study sample of 568 manual lifting tasks (automobile parts, foods, and tire manufacture) were evaluated for this study. All 502 tasks exceed lifting index(LI) of 1.0, but 276 tasks(55.0%) out of 502 tasks were evaluated non-over burdened work for musculoskeletal system by the MOL Notification. Particularly, 47 tasks(30.9%), in spite of exceeding LI of 3.0, were evaluated non-over burdened work. This study has shown the possibility of devaluation on risk factors of MSDs, when evaluated by MOL Notification. Therefore, it will be necessary to repeal or complement the scope of over-burdened work(MOL Notification) to prevent musculoskeletal disorders.