Evaluation of risk factors of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders in a meat processing company

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the risks associated with repetitive movements of the upper limbs in different meat processing tasks of a pig slaughterhouse. The study was conducted in a Brazilian pig slaughterhouse, in which 200 workers were evaluated through the OCRA Checklist. There were 18 work tasks analyzed from the following sectors: cuts (8); ham (4); pepperoni (3); sausage (2) and salami (1). The average score of OCRA Checklist was 20.6 ± 5.8 (moderate risk). The scores for the right upper limb (20.4 ± 6.0 - moderate risk) did not differ (p = 0.163) from the left upper limb (20.6 ± 5.8 - moderate risk). Two work tasks were considered high risk (11%) and 16 were within a moderate risk (89%). These results suggest that pig processing tasks predispose workers to a greater probability of developing upper limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders (>21.5% probability for high risk and 10.8 to 21.5% for moderate risk).