Musculoskeletal Risks in Washington State Apple Packing Companies

6.0 CONCLUSIONS

Repetition, static-loading postures, extended reaches, and high force are characteristics of packing house jobs that put workers in this industry at risk of developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD). The high force, high repetition, and awkward postures associated with segregator lifting tasks produces high risk of back and shoulder injury. The repetitive nature of packing creates greater potential for upper limb repetitive trauma injury. The high forces used in manually packing bags and semi-automatically packing bags and trays increases the risk of injury. Initial efforts to reduce WMSD risks should begin in the packer and segregator jobs in that they have the most frequent and severe risk factors. The first priority should be to eliminate any high force aspects of the packing job, since force combined with repetition greatly increases the risk of injury. Another area for focus should be on re-examining the way that segregators palletize boxes. These and other possible interventions to reduce or eliminate musculoskeletal risks need to be reviewed for feasibility with input from the industry.

To address how to best modify jobs to reduce risk of WMSD for a specific packing house, studies (Griffith 1985; Rosecrance 2000; Moore 1996) have shown that an inclusive and iterative process that involves management, line workers, and vendors is the best method for finding company-specific solutions. Many companies have successfully established and trained ergonomics committees or teams that assessed specific jobs, they then worked with industry vendors to identify existing solutions or encourage vendors to develop new engineering solutions. This is particularly effective when vendors believe there is a developing market for new solutions. Finally, worker perception of risk should be included when contemplating any intervention strategy. Perception of risk may identify areas of greatest opportunity to enlist worker cooperation in finding and fixing problems.

Limitations

This study was designed to survey the breadth of size and packing styles found in Washington packing houses. The small number of participating packing houses limits the ability to extrapolate these findings to the entire industry. However, we believe the processes and work conditions observed and reported here are similar, if not identical, to those found throughout the industry. Since only one or two days were sampled, it may not reflect the variability in production and exposure as well as other conditions that may change over time. For example, observations were made in the spring, yet the highest production times are in the fall of the year when more or different risk factors may have been observed. Many workers change jobs from day to day, so chronic health effects could not be assessed for specific jobs. Because company injury data could not be confidently categorized by job, job-specific symptoms, discomfort, and risk factors could not be compared with injury rates. Medical examinations of participating workers would have provided some objective verification of self-reported symptoms.

Future Studies

The focus of this study was limited to a musculoskeletal risk assessment and possible ergonomic solutions in four job classifications in the packing house industry. Risks and solutions in other jobs in this industry could and should be evaluated. Air quality, safety, and other issues also would be appropriate topics for a follow-up study of this industry. The effect of machine pacing on discomfort levels could be further explored to determine whether the incidence of WMSD is greater with machine pacing vs. self-pacing. As the industry implements interventions to reduce the hazard of WMSD, comparing risk factors to the baseline data in this study could assess the effectiveness of these interventions over time.

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