Environmental Ergonomics

Flour mills are the epicentre of occupational health hazards resulting from the unorganised workplace and exhaustive activities carried out by the flour mill workers without any regard for safety. Taking into account the extent of difficulties faced by the workers of flour mills the present study was undertaken to know more about the different types of activities and various risks associated with the activities carried out in flour mills. The study was conducted through a properly framed research in Ludhiana city on 100 workers selected randomly from two zones of the city, who were vigorously involved in different tasks performed in the flour mills. An interview schedule was designed in order to obtain information from the selected respondents about their personal and professional backgrounds, as well as the challenges they faced while working in flour mills. Scales used for postural analysis of the respondents were Postural Discomfort Scale (Corlett and Bishop 1976), Standardized Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (Kuorinka et al 1987) and Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale (Varghese et al 1994). Results revealed that factors contributing to worker health decline were working in filthy conditions without using any personal protective equipment leading to respiratory issues whereas injuries like dislocations, slips, cuts, falls were also reported due to carrying heavy load on slippery floor and due to unguarded machines. Postural analysis showed that lower back, upper back, neck and shoulders were the most affected body parts of the respondents.
Keywords: Occupational health hazards, Workplace, Flour mills, Flour mill workers, Postural discomfort.

As a major generator of jobs, the textile industry has great prominence in the world market andalong with the growth of organizations, comes the concern with the healthof the worker so as not to lose productivity. Thus, workers in the area are more exposed to risks of developing occupational diseasesarising from inappropriate positions, repetitive movements, internal pressure for results, among others. This article ergonomically evaluated a sector of Creation and Development of a Textile Industry through the application of a checklist to check ergonomics in general and consequently the health of the worker. A Nordic questionnaire was also applied to analyze the parts of the body that employees feel the most pain.The results revealed the need for an integrated action program that acts mainly on factors such as "Layout" and "Keyboard and Keyboard Support "and" WorkSystem". Consequently, the most affected places were the wrist sand the back, which highlights the importance of measures such as exchange or adaptation of items and breaks and the participation of workers in ergonomic education.