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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

SangWoo Tak, ScD¹, Laura Punnett¹, Susan Moir, ScD², Bryan Buchholz¹, Victor L. Paquet, ScD³, and David H. Wegman, MD, MSOH⁴. (1) Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854, 978-934-3269, swtak@hotmail.com, (2) Labor Resource Center, Univ. of Mass. Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, (3) Dept. of Industrial Engineering, SUNY Buffalo, Lawrence D. Bell Hall, Room 342, Box 602050, Buffalo, NY 14260, (4) School of Health and the Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 1 University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854

Because of its highly variable nature, construction work does not lend itself to work cycle-based analysis of occupational exposures. PATH (Posture, Activities, Tools, Handling) was developed to characterize non-routinized work such as construction by using work sampling to obtain unbiased estimates of ergonomics exposures such as awkward postures, load handling and tool use, linked to the tasks in which they are performed by concurrent observation. The method has been embedded within a hierarchical taxonomy of construction stages and operations, enabling us to categorize construction work systematically on several levels. Data were compiled from 9 field studies carried out by ergonomists from the Construction Occupational Health Program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell during the last decade, all at a set of large highway construction sites in Boston. In each study, a series of PATH observations was made at fixed intervals of either 45 or 60 seconds. We made 15,118 PATH observations over 73 days on 9 operations within a uniform taxonomy, covering 120 construction workers in 5 different trades performing 45 tasks. Each operation had over 5 days of observations except slurry wall construction (3 days). Non-neutral trunk postures (forward or sideways flexion or twisting) were frequently observed, representing over 40% of observations for most operations. Kneeling and squatting were common in tiling and underground utility relocation work. Manual material handling activities were frequent, especially for carpenters and ironworkers, with a range of load weights.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will learn about the range and intensity of ergonomic exposures in heavy and highway construction and how these exposures vary among the trades of carpenter, ironworker, labourer, plasterer, and tiler.

Keywords: Construction Injuries, Workplace Stressors

Related Web page: www.uml.edu/college/she/WE/COHP/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation