The purpose of this study is to execute the investigation of injurious factors causing muscle-skeletal diseases at an automotive glass manufacturing company and, on the basis of the results, to enhance productivity by the improvement of working environment. By using an survey and an ergonomic evaluation method, symptoms of muscle-skeletal diseases of workers and working postures at each process were analyzed, and quantitative evaluation of muscle-skeletal disease risk against each process was performed. Based on the result of the evaluation, to enhance the working environment, improvement of worktable, working space, tools, and outfit was suggested, and induction of mechanical system was also suggested. Suggested improvement plan was applied to the workplace step by step and it is confirmed that improvement plan not only removes the injurious factors of muscle-skeletal diseases but also is effective to enhance productivity.

A standardized ergonomics kit is suggested to evaluate and reduce musculoskeletal hazards that yield large socioeconomic burdens in the work system. This kit comprises basic and detailed analysis tools with proper tool selection rules. The basic tool includes a checklist for various risk factors to screen potentially hazardous jobs among manual works. Selective detailed analysis tools can then be applied to the screened job lists for more quantitative and precise evaluation. The tool selection rules are devised for using the basic and detailed analysis tools in a mutually supplemental way. To validate the standardized ergonomics kit, it was applied to evaluate jobs related to the musculoskeletal hazards in a paper-making industry. Among 101 manual jobs investigated, 44 potential hazardous jobs were screened during basic investigation phase and finally 16 hazardous jobs were identified by the detailed analysis phase. The result provided fairly promising ideas of ergonomic interventions for the hazardous jobs.

본 연구에서는 관상동맥질환 환자들의 누운 자세가 자율신경계의 균형에 미치는 효과를 알아보고자 하였다. 관상동맥질환군 43명과 통제군 31명을 대상으로 세 가지 자세-똑바로 누운 자세(supine), 왼쪽으로 누운 자세(left), 오른쪽으로 누운 자세(right) -에서의 심박동변이도(HRV)를 측정하였다. HRV 변수들에 대한 분석 결과, 오른쪽으로 누운 자세에서 normalized high-frequency power가 가장 높았고, normalized low-frequency power는 가장 낮았다. 즉, 오른쪽으로 누운 자세에서 심장교감신경계의 활성도를 나타내는 HRV 변수들은 가장 낮은 반면에 심장부교감신경계의 활성도를 나타내는 HRV 변수들은 가장 높은 것으로 나타났다.

The purpose of this study is to find injurious factors and to propose an improvement plan on workers' musculoskeletal disorders at a bakery workplace through analyzing the symptom, work posture and quantitative estimate. For this study, a survey and ergonomic estimate methods were adopted. According to the survey, it was analyzed that 429 workers corresponding to 68.2% of the response have been experienced the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders such as an ache, prickle and numbness. The result of QEC analysis shows that shoulder and waist are highly exposed to musculoskeletal disease. The result of RULA analysis shows that injurious factors of muscle, weight and repeated operations are a little higher than those of operation posture. The result of SI estimate shows that pre-treatment of making bread requiring highly repeated operation gets the highest point of 81, on the other hand, chocolate-coating job requiring relatively low speed and short time gets the point of 4.5. Based on the analyzed results, improvement plan to prevent the musculoskeletal disorders against injurious working process of a bakery workplace. The goal of this study is to propose the improved scheme that prevents the workers against musculoskeletal disorders. A questionnaire and an ergonomic assessment method were adopted to analyze the symptoms of workers' musculoskeletal disorders, and an analysis of working postures and a quantitative assessment on various processes were performed to find out harmful factors of workplace.

A research project was conducted to study work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) at a die-casting plant in Korea. The project was consisted of 4 main parts; education on the topics of MSDs for all workers, symptom survey, medical check-up, investigation of MSD risk factors. The result of symptom survey showed that 89.5% of the respondents complained pains on at least one part of the body. After cross-sectional analysis of various information and risk factors based upon NIOSH criteria, 83.3% of respondents were considered as active health surveillance level 1, and 16% of the respondents were considered as active health surveillance level 2 those are at high risk of having MSDs based upon a criteria developed by Institute of Labor Science at University of Incheon. Also the result of medical examination by a industrial medicine MD showed that 41workers(44.1%) out of 93 workers examined were considered as MSD patient group at moderate level, and 10 workers(10.8%) were considered as MSD patient group at relatively high level that require certain level of medical treatment and ergonomics interventions for their workplace. The analysis of the work environment using various ergonomic investigation techniques revealed that repeated awakard postures(50%) and highly repatitive task(37.5%) were two most contributing risk factors for the on-set of MSD at this work site followed by handling of heavy object(8.3%), and vibration(4.2%).

Recently, WRMSD(Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders) that can be frequently found among simple and repetitious works has been a big occupational safety issue, and has begun to being studied actively by many Korean researchers. However, those researches have been largely relied on foreign ones, due to the lack of basic data in Korea. In this study, we have tried to search the actual conditions and factors on WRMSD of press workers in a local company. In addition, we examined how the contents of works and postures of the workers affect the disease. It is expected that the data collected in this study will be able to used for planning the preventive measures on WRMSD effectively and for implementing its corresponding programs.

Occupational illness analyses are used to identify common factors contributing to occupational illness and to give recommendations for illness prevention. We discuss safety and health management policies based on the present status of MSDS(Musculoskeletal Disorders) characteristics and the actual safety and health problems. These results can be used to develop more effective occupational safety and health management policies for the prevention of MSDS.

Recently, both management and labor are interested in the increasing ratio of musculoskeletal disorders. And the developed countries make efforts to consider a counterplan such as prevention activity of musculoskeletal disorders and application possibility of ergonomic program, because musculoskeletal disorders take large portion out of occupational disease. Especially, small and medium enterprises have bigger problems due to the inferior work condition and environment in comparison with big businesses. This study is to introduce developed countries' cases such as WISE(Work Improvement in Small Enterprises) and OSHA Handbook for Small Businesses and to suggest the program of ergonomic management for small and medium enterprises having comparative difficulties against big businesses in improving work environment and managing ergonomic operations.

Back pain is painful for people at a lower lumber(L4/L5 or L5/S1). It is experienced as a most frequent disaster 70％ of workers have suffered from back-pain. Especially, the occurrence rate of back pain for nurses is very high. Therefore, this study investigates female nurses who worked as a part of a medical cost management team, which mainly deal with the medical insurance in a general hospital at Seoul area. These nurses had different job tasks, which used computers for 50％ of their time, so it can be treated as VDT workers. As a first step of this project, a muscle fatigue was measured for these special VDT workers. First, survey for nurses was conducted to figure out what is a real problem of them. Second, to evaluate an experimental data, a medical cost management team was chosen for subjects. Areas of measurement were 3 places that were the trapezius (TR), the medial deltoid (MD), and the erector spine muscle (ES: L4/L5). These areas are most frequently used, so they were chosen for this study. Measurements were taken before work and after work. From these measurements, it was revealed that a fatigue really comes from their main VDT task excluding natural fatigue after work, so their work environment need to be corrected.

최근 산업안전/보건분야에서 누적외상성질환(Cumulative Trauma Disorders： CTDs)과 직업성요통(Low Back Injury)과 같은 근골격계질환은 산업현장에서 어렵지 않게 발견할 수 있는 신종 산업재해의 일종이다. 특히 미국의 경우, 발생건수와 그로 인한 인적/물적 손실이 급격하게 증가되고 있는 것으로 나타나고 있다. 그러나 미국과 같이 근골격계질환의 폐해를 일찌감치 인식하고 그 해결방안을 연구해온 나라들에서는 현재 환자관리 및 인간공학적인 기준 등을 포함하는 예방지침들이 잘 정착되어 있는 실정이다. 우리나라의 경우에는 작업환경 등의 조건과 상황이 미국과 같은 구미 선전국과 비숫하고, 특히 제조업의 생산체계가 그런 나라들과 매우 유사하여 근골격계질환의 발생과 그로 인한 인적/물적 손실이 적지 않을 것이라고 예상할 수 있지만 아직까지 CTDs에 대한 전반적인 이해가 부족하고, 정확한 실태가 파악되지 못하였으며, 따라서 체계적인 관리 대책 또한 마련되어있지 않은 실정이다. 본 조사에서는 서울 근교의 수송기계관련 사업장의 작업들에 대한 작업자세에 중심을 둔 인간공학평가를 통하여 조사 작업의 근골격계질환에 대한 상대적인 위험도, 위험요인 등을 파악하고, 그에 따른 개선 대책의 방향을 제시하고자 하였다. 특히, 각 부위별 위험점수와 부위별 증상호소율의 상환분석결과, 작업자 개인적 수준에서는 통계적으로 유의한 차는 없는 것으로 분석되었으나, 부서별로 분석한 결과, 작업시 주로 사용하는 오른쪽 상지의 경우, 오른쪽 어깨, 팔꿈치, 손목 순으로 통계적으로 유의하게 관련이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 즉 증상호소율과 해당 신체부위의 위험도 점수는 서로 정적(positive)한 관계에 있는 것으로 나타났고, 상지 중 주로 사용하는 오른쪽 부담의 위험도 자세 점수와 증상호소는 비교적 높은 상관관계에 있는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 이와 같은 인간공학적 분석결과는 향후 인간공학적인 개선대책의 개발 뿐만 아니라 의학쪽에서 근골격계질환을 접근하는 초기단계에서 매우 유용한 역할을 할 수 있으리라 생각된다.

작업과 관련된 근골격계 질환은 선진국에서는 1970년대부터 문제가 제기되어 왔다. 특히 좋지 않은 작업자세, 손가락의 반복사용에 의한 목, 어깨, 손목 등의 누적된 근골격계 질환이 문제가 되고 있다. 우리나라에서도 작업과 관련된 근골격계 질환에 연구가 최근에 많이 진행되고 있으나 주로 외국의 연구이론을 적용하고 있으며 국내의 기초 데이터는 매우 부족한 형편이다. 본 연구는 근골격계 질환을 유발시키는 작업유형 가운데 유발율이 상대적으로 높은 국내 H 회사의 맨홀작업의 근골격계 질환의 실태를 알아내고 이를 유발시키는 여러 인자를 찾아내었다. 또한 신체의 아픈 부위와 정도에 따른 작업내용과 작업환경 조건과의 관계도 규명하였다. 이러한 연구 자료는 효과적인 예방 프로그램을 계획하고 실행하는 데 많은 도움을 줄 수 있을 것이다.