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20222
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Subject: Family Resource Management × End date: 2022 × Start date: 2022 × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    Ergonomic assessment of occupational risk factors prevalent among workers engaged in gardening
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Martolia, Divya; Gupta, Ritu
    Gardeners 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.
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    Impact of on-site sanitation systems on quality of groundwater in rural households of Punjab
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2022) Bharti, Surabhi; Narinderjit Kaur
    The present study was conducted to investigate the impact of on-site sanitation systems on quality of groundwater in rural households of Punjab. The experiment was undertaken during 2019 in two parts i.e., field survey and field experiment, in three zones of Punjab on the basis of depth of underground water. For conducting the field survey, a total of 150 households were selected, comprising 50 households from each district i.e., village Killianwali (District Shri Muktsar Sahib), village Talwandi Khurd (District Ludhiana) and village Rode (District Moga). A well-structured interview schedule was prepared to collect general information regarding socio-cultural characteristics of the respondents and specific information (village profile in terms of on-site sanitation system, water sources, quality), to access the living status of village respondents. From the selected households, water samples were also collected during pre- and post-monsoon periods (year 2019) from the main water sources i.e., government rural water supply taps and privately owned submersible pumps and analyzed for physical, chemical and microbiological properties for assessing the water quality. Among the both monsoon periods, significantly higher EC, TDS, TS, chloride, nitrate, hardness, DO, potassium, magnesium, sodium and calcium concentration was observed in samples collected during pre-monsoon compared with post-monsoon period. On the other hand, concentration of BOD and Mn slightly decreased after monsoon. Among the different villages, water samples of Killianwali village collected during both monsoon periods, had significantly higher pH, EC, TDS, TS, nitrate, calcium, magnesium, hardness, potassium, sodium and DO, while the water samples of Rode village had the lowest concentrations and Talwandi Khurd village was in the middle. Almost all the parameters of water samples of Killianwali village were out of the permissible limit, compared with the samples of other two villages. A highly significant and positive correlation of EC and TDS with water pH, nitrate, sodium, potassium, calcium, and negative with manganese, copper was observed during both monsoon periods. Moreover, BOD and turbidity of samples showed highly significant and positive correlation with temperature, whereas, DO showed negative correlation with temperature during both monsoon periods. On the basis of WQI values, water quality in both Killianwali and Talwandi Khurd villages was poor, but water quality in Rode village was comparatively good. Village Killianwali had highest number of TC positive water samples followed by Rode and Talwandi Khurd during both monsoon periods. The major pathogenic organism detected in bacteriologically contaminated water samples was identified as Campylobacter spp. (73.3% and 81.6%) in comparison to others. Information regarding the effect of quality of ground water on human health by knowing the occurrence of acute and chronic diseases, was also collected by preparing interview schedule. Village Killianwali had the highest number of respondents suffering from food poisoning, hair fall and skin rashes, fever, diarrhea, typhoid and jaundice/other whereas, Rode and Talwandi Khurd villages have the least number of respondents. Killianwali village has reported more health hazards than the other two compared villages. This might be due to less distance between the water source and the sanitation units than is recommended (15 m), which causes microbiological and physical-chemical contamination of ground water. Based on the observations made throughout the study, guidelines related to regular maintenance practices of on-site sanitation system, its construction design, compatibility with the soil type and depth of underground water were also developed based on the observations recorded during the study.