Macro-ergonomic risk assessment with the relative stress index method in textile industry

• Published in: International journal of environmental health engineering 2014-01, Vol.3 (1), p.3-3
• Main Authors: Kazemi, Meghdad, Safari, Shahram, Akbari, Jafar, Mououdi, Mohammad, Mahaki, Behzad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Ergonomics; Health aspects; Macro-ergonomic; Occupational safety and health; Posture; relative stress index; Risk assessment; riskassessment; Textile industry; Textile workers; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 2277-9183; 2277-9183
• DOI: 10.4103/2277-9183.131803

Aims: The aim of present study was macro-ergonomic risk assessment with a relative stress index (RSI) in textile industry. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted based on the Census method among 154 workers in textile industry in Isfahan (IRI) that work on three shifts. Risk assessment based on RSI is divided into three main sections: job description, check list, and RSI. For computation of this method, different equations have been defended that by their computation was being performed. The final values for the RSI area scale between zero and 10 where zero implies on dangerous, insecure, not efficient and number 10 indicated safe, secure, and being efficient. Results: ANOVA test showed that, hand work and sensory in different shifts among textile industry had significant relationships with occupational hazard (P < 0.05). Also, posture with a mean 6.19 +- 0.11 and manual material handling with a mean 9.14 +- 0.41 had the lowest and highest score, respectively. Conclusion: Based on the findings from the study, the posture at work and hand work were the most influential factor to the incidence of occupational hazards among workers with in the textile industry. So keeping a good posture and reducing the level of hand work activity during each shift can have a significant impact in reducing occupational hazards.