IT—Information Technology and the Human Interface: Tractor Vibration Severity and Driver Health: a Study from Rural India
✍ Scribed by Adarsh Kumar; Puneet Mahajan; Dinesh Mohan; Mathew Varghese
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 402 KB
- Volume
- 80
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0021-8634
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✦ Synopsis
Measurements of vibrations were conducted on tractors of di!erent sizes under varying terrain conditions. Analysis has been done in terms of root mean square (rms) accelerations in one-third-octave band and International Standard Organisation (ISO) weighted overall rms. The values were compared with ISO 2631-1,1985 and 1997 standards. The comparisons reveal that measured vibrations exceed the &8 h exposure limit' in one-third-octave frequency band procedure of ISO 2631ISO -1 (1985) ) on both farm and non-farm terrains. In the overall ISO-weighted rms acceleration procedure of ISO 2631-1 (1997) in all farm and non-farm terrains working time of 3 h exceeded the upper limit of &health guidance caution zone'. A tractor-operator model was adapted for prediction of the rms accelerations on the ISO 5008 track. This model gave results for vibration exposure similar to measured values. E!ect of whole-body vibrations on degenerative changes in the spine of 50 tractor-driving farmers was evaluated by comparing them with a control group of 50 non-tractor-driving farmers matched for age, sex, ethnic group, land holding and work routine. All participants were interviewed in detail for occurrence of low back pain, examined clinically and a magnetic resonance image (MRI) of the lumbar spine region was obtained. Evaluation of data revealed that the tractor-driving farmers complain of backache more often than non-tractor-driving farmers but there was no signi"cant objective di!erence in clinical or magnetic resonance imaging between the two groups.