Posture stress on firefighters and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) associated with repetitive reaching, bending,...

These ergonomic evaluations analyze the threat of musculoskeletal injuries primarily due to awkward and extreme postures across two post-fire tasks and a patient care task.

The participants were firefighters and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) in an urban U.S. fire department.

Ergonomic tools used for the evaluation included the National Institute of Occupational Safety Health (NIOSH) lifting equation, Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and anthropometric measurements of equipment and persons.

High to very high risks were found for lifting the hose above the shoulder to drain it of excess water and for rolling the hoses on the ground. Extreme risk was found for lifting the hose from chest height to above the shoulders during hose drainage. High risk was found for EMT patient care tasks that require reaching for overhead equipment or seated tasks that require horizontal bending and twisting.

The risk was high enough for these tasks to warrant modification and changes. The recommendations given included creating new mechanical and technical devices, modifying existing devises, and making workers aware of associated risks to reduce the threat of injury.