Muscular mechanical energy expenditure as a process for detecting potential risks in manual materials handling

The problem of injuries in manual materials handling remains a big concern in industrialized countries. It has become imperative in occupational biomechanics to extend the analyses to all pertinent factors involved in working tasks and to adopt an experimental approach leading to the understanding of the relative demands imposed simultaneously on all body joints. The evaluation of joint muscular work and the processes of energy generation, absorption and transfer appears promising as a tool in the detection of risk factors in working tasks. The present study consisted of evaluating two tasks (lifting and lowering) performed at five different heights (from 15 to 185 cm) with five different loads (from 3.3 to 22.0 kg). The subjects were eight experienced workers from a food product warehouse. Cinematography techniques and two AMTI force platforms were used to collect the data. Dynamic and planar segmental analyses were performed to calculate the net muscular moments at the joints, and work was calculated from the integration of muscular power. Factorial analyses of variance with repeated measures were performed on the dependent variables to evaluate the main effects of tasks, loads, and heights (for lifting and for lowering) and the interactions. The results revealed the adoption of different movement strategies in the handling of heavier loads. In the first, a larger emphasis of energy transfer and movement economy; in the second, a reduction in the relative contribution of the shoulders to the detriment of an increased participation of the lower back and hips was found. The comparison between lifting and lowering tasks indicated that lifting was only slightly more demanding than lowering for maximum muscular moments (about 15%) but much more so for mechanical work (about 40%); however, the nature of the efforts in eccentric contractions suggests that the lowering of heavy loads may be risky. Finally, the results revealed the deviation of height of handling from the waist level to be a significant factor. Handling at lower heights was considerably more demanding but the work was shared by several joints, mainly by the hips and lower back (about 70%); on the other hand, in handling above the waist, the work efforts were concentrated on the upper limbs (about 80%). In most cases, the participation of lower limbs was minimal and some movement strategies are suggested for future research.