Intra-abdominal pressure responses of mineworkers to standard loads

Intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) has been used as the basis for a series of force limits for manual handling based on a limiting pressure criterion of 12 kPa (90 mm Hg). Measurements of the IAP responses to a series of standard loads were carried out on a group of eight instructors from the British coal mining industry. The results showed that there was a very low probability (.0016 or less) of obtaining an IAP value of 12 kPa or greater from the population represented by our sample. Average responses were 33% lower than would have been expected from previous reports on force limits based on IAP measurements. While more data are necessary in order to confirm the applicability of these findings to the general mining population, the results clearly suggest that greater loads could safely be lifted by mineworkers than can be lifted by the industrial population represented by the guidelines.