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ThesisItem Embargo Ergonomic assessment of occupational risk factors prevalent among workers engaged in gardening(Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Martolia, Divya; Gupta, RituGardeners are at risk for work-related injuries because they are subjected to high physical demands at work. The gardeners work attributes more of repetitive tasks with awkward posture for long working hours. The aim of the present study was to investigate the occupational risk faced by the workers engaged in gardening, to evaluate the postural discomfort and physiological parameters for selected gardening activities and to suggest suitable ergonomic interventions to reduce occupational risk. The study was conducted into two phases- field survey and field experiment. For conducting field survey, a total of 150 male workers who were fully engaged in gardening job for the last five years were purposively selected from Ludhiana city. For conducting field experiments, 30 subjects were selected purposively out of total sample of field survey. The data were collected with the help of self constructed interview schedule and low cost objective ergonomic analysis worksheet. Findings revealed that the subjects faced occupational risk while performing various gardening activities because of adopting poor posture and neglecting the importance of wearing protective clothing. Based on the frequency of performance of activities, time spent per day and the awkward posture adopted by them, the three activities (Weeding, Hedge cutting and Potting) were selected for further analysis. Results revealed that the physiological parameters of subjects for selected activities were found to be moderate. For weeding, hedge cutting and potting activity the working heart rate were found to be 108.72 beats per minute, 106.34 beats per minute and 103.52 beats per minute respectively. The energy expenditure of subjects while performing selected activities were found to be 8.56 kJ/min, 8.18 kJ/min and 7.74 kJ/min respectively. Furthermore, the oxygen consumption for selected gardening activities were recorded 0.55 l/min, 0.53 l/min and 0.50 l/min respectively. REBA, OWAS, WERA tools were used to examine the postural discomfort faced by the subjects in existing practice for selected gardening activities, which indicated that subjects working in awkward posture showed high to medium risk to their health. In accordance with the results of field survey and field experiments an intervention was designed and tested (low height stool with adjustable belts and cotton gloves) and adjustable hedge cutter was tested to assess the efficiency while performing gardening activities. Furthermore, the results revealed that working with interventional aid improved the posture of the subjects. Thus, reducing their discomfort in performing gardening activities. Hence, most of the subjects were satisfied and felt comfortable with the introduced intervention.
