Ergonomic Assessment of the Lifting Tasks Performed by North Indian Workers in LPG Cylinder Distribution Supply Chain

Abstract

Lifting is considered as the most stressful activity in manual material handling and leads to musculoskeletal disorders. The present work was performed to evaluate the lifting index and the risk of low back pain among workers involved in lifting of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder. 40 workers working in 3 modes of transportation of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders in north India were investigated with the help of the NIOSH lifting equation. The results revealed that 100% of the workers have performed under different levels of risk as their LI > 1. 22.5% were under low risk, 32.5% of workers were under medium risk and 45% of the workers were under high risk. The present work reveals that there is a need to redesign the lifting tasks by reducing the horizontal distance of lifting of cylinders and reducing the weight of the cylinder.