Citation

Cornelius KM, Redfern MS, Steiner LJ. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 1994; 13(4): 343-351.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Fall injuries to operators of heavy mobile equipment are more frequent during egress rather than while climbing onto the equipment. One possible contributing factor is a loss of postural stability during egress. Because many of these operators are exposed to prolonged periods of whole-body vibration (WBV) while controlling the equipment, a study was conducted to determine if postural stability is impaired by WBV exposure. Subjects were tested for a difference in standing postural sway before and after seated WBV exposure. The WBV consisted of 40 minutes of vertical vibration generated by a motion platform, which emulated actual vibration levels of an operating under-ground shuttle car. Two independent variables, each at two levels, consisted of vibration and vision. The measured dependent variables were postural sway amplitude and velocity of sway. No significant difference between the vibration and no vibration conditions were found. Based on the results of this study, it cannot be concluded that WBV at the exposed frequencies influences postural stability. The results suggest that other factors may be the primary contributors to fall injuries while exiting the vehicle, such as problems with foot placement accuracy or egress system design.