Citation

Romaniello R, Tamborrino A, Leone A. J. Agric. Saf. Health 2018; 24(3): 141-153.

Affiliation

University of Foggia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Society of Agricultural Engineers)

DOI

10.13031/jash.12720

PMID

30223635

Abstract

The use of mobile elevated work platforms (MEWPs) versus ladders was studied to evaluate the physical activity (PA) of workers and their performance during olive tree pruning. Accelerometers worn by the workers were used to measure triaxial accelerations, which were converted into PA using Freedson's equation. The mean values of acceleration on the three axes for workers on ladders led to statistically higher results than for workers on MEWPs. The energy expenditure (EE) and metabolic equivalent (MET) values were statistically different (about 1.8 times higher) for the ladder work site than for the MEWP work site. The use of an MEWP leads to more time spent on moderate activity (84.30%) than when using a ladder (71.90%) but no time on vigorous activity compared to a ladder (13.88%). The pruning performance was 3.8 for the MEWP and 1.4 for the ladder, while the labor productivity was 11.4 for the MEWP and 4.2 for the ladder. Thus, it is possible to reduce worker employment and costs by about 2.7 times with MEWPs.

Copyright© by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.

Language: en

Keywords

Accelerometry ; Ladders ; Mobile elevated work platform (MEWP) ; Olive tree pruning ; Physical activity ; Work overhead