Occupational Health Promotion throughout an Interventional Ergonomic Design (Case Study: Ergonomic Cart Design at a Food Manufacturing Company in Iran)

Health, safety and environment management has a vast area in which ergonomics aspects is known as one of the related aspects. In this case study the occupational hygiene by ergonomic intervention was focused. One of the prevalence activities among industrial sector's worker in the developing countries is manual lifting tasks and other related physical activities which are important task not only in terms of occupational health but also about safety. These sorts of activities are known as one of the main risk factors of Work related Musculoskeletal Disorders. In this case study the mentioned tasks were focused in a food manufacturing company in Tehran-Iran in which there are some kinds of plants. Some parts of worker's activities including lifting, lowering and carrying the boxes and bulky body packages. In the sesame seeds cleaning and peeling plant, some of the workers should transfer some amounts of sesames from centrifuge as an origin to kilns as a destination area by carrying the carts and also lifting the tank to empty sesames into furnaces. In this study, the psychophysical aspects of activity were assessed by Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ), and anthropometry measurement was done among the 48 sampled workers. Ovako Working-posture Analysis method (OWAS) was also used to assess the body postures. The gathered data and in-depth observation showed the necessity of cart design to improve workers health in terms of ergonomic factors. Based on the mentioned assessment and also anthropometric data a new cart was design considering with economics limitations. By this new cart lifting stress and pushing tasks would be changed to better condition.