Low Back Injury Risk among Workers Engaged in LPG Supply Chain

Abstract

Manual handling of containers may expose workers to physical conditions (e.g., force, awkward postures, and repetitive motions) that can lead to injuries, over consumption of energy and time. Present study evaluates the lifting, lowering and handling of LPG cylinder by the delivery boy of Northern India. Therefore, risk of low back injuries among workers was assessed using NIOSH lifting equation and Lifting Index. The study involved, 40 different workers working in 3 modes of transportation of LPG cylinders via Trucks, 3 wheelers and cycle rickshaw. The results revealed that 100 % of the workers were performing under different levels of risk as reflected by the lifting index (LI) > 1. The study revealed that most contributing factors were horizontal distances of grip. However, no statistically significant difference was found between the lifting tasks performed by the workers of different modes of supply of the cylinders. The study concluded that there is a need to redesign in terms of mechanizing the lifting and lowering tasks.