The vibration health risk assessment on operators of different capacity dumpers at opencast mine in india

Abstract

In a labour intensive sector, some of the factors in the work environment which impact the health of vehicle operators include: Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) and Hand-Arm Vibration (HAV). The vibrations transferred from the dumpers are harmful to the operators; hence a study was carried out to measure the vibration from dumpers and its effect on operators in Indian opencast mines. Dumper is a vehicle designed to transport bulk material and used extensively in the construction and mining industries. For the measurement, dumpers with the different capacities were selected from the opencast mines. Vibration measurements were carried out in accordance with ISO 5349-1 for the measurement of HAV and ISO 2631-1 for the measurement of WBV. The obtained WBV exposure result shows that the problem of musculoskeletal disorder was significantly higher with respect to VDV(8) (69 %) in the exposed population as compared to A(8) r.m.s. acceleration (46 %). Moreover different capacity dumper vehicle hand transmitted vibration through steering wheel, A(8) r.m.s. acceleration observed in the range of 1.91 m/s2-4.28 m/s2. As per EU DIRECTIVE 2002/44/EC, specified Exposure Action Value (EAV) 71 % measured A(8) value falls within EAV limit. However, despite of the result operator experience problem of hand arm vibration syndrome. Hence there is a need of ergonometric deign enhancement on dumpers vehicle’s seat and steering wheel.