Stress and musculoskeletal discomfort among hydrocarbon industry workers in Mexico

This study of 114 workers in the hydrocarbon industry was conducted to identify the relationship between stress and musculoskeletal discomfort, and to view the roles played by such factors as age, schooling, obesity, workplace and job seniority. All factors except seniority were found to affect the presence of musculoskeletal discomfort in some area of the body.     

The profile of cyclists in the city of Juiz de Fora

The problems related to the means of transport in urban Brazilians have been getting worse over the years. The increase of the fleet, to the detriment of the adequacy and extent of the road network of cities contributes to this fact. This paper presents a profile of users of cycling in the city of Juiz de Fora, and thus contributes to the study of sustainable urban mobility, providing researchers with information that can guide the search for the encouragement of the use of means of transport to meet environmental needs urban centers that contributes to social equity.     

Cognitive representation of the comprehension test of safety warnings using multivariate methods

This paper presents a multivariate method to assess the comprehension of safety signs. The proposed method uses the MDS and Procrustes, to obtain a consensus perceptual map. The results show that the map allowed discriminating signs with high levels of comprehension from others. The safety signs have no statistical difference as depicted by Bootstrap Analysis.     

Body postures versus production requirements - the case of a fiberglass parts factory

This study aimed to perform an ergonomic analysis in a fiberglass parts factory. For this purpose, was used the methodology of Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA). At the end of the study it was possible to identify some ways to the development of improvements in order to contribute to the transformation of working conditions in the sector analyzed.     

Slope effect on pushing forces

In some occupations pushing forces are frequent when performed on horizontal ground and are standardized (ISO 2002). In special cases employees are obliged to grow container on slopes and the strains are poorly investigated. The objective of this work is to measure forces required to push garbage container on horizontal and inclined at 0, 4, 11 and 16 % grounds. Sudden and significant increases in heart rate reflect the possible risk of heart overload in long displacements. This study proposes realistic limits and provides a simple and protective tool for a group of employees without distinction of age or gender. These limits can even be reduced to a quasi-linear model where push 200 kg is the maximum for 0% slope and 60 kg for 10% slope.     

Ergonomic intervention methods for inclusion of people with disabilities at work: Brazilian scene

The aim is to identify ergonomic intervention methods used for including people with disabilities (PD) in the Brazilian labor market, with emphasis on discussion of methods to analyze the fit between the worker and the workplace. Methods to evaluate the fit of the worker to the workplace identify the capabilities and limitations of PDs and the demands of work, combining these data, and comparing them, in order to obtain a detailed analysis of the fit were drawn from national and international publications. These show that the use of specific methods for PDs and others focused on the general population. Mutatis mutandis, there is a need for complementary tools to address this segment. Thus, for the Brazilian scenario, it is essential to develop specific methodological tools to assess the capabilities of a PD so that they may better interact with their job.     

Interface of drug use

Packaging and labeling play a crucial role awhile protecting medicaments and transmitting a range of crucial information to the users. Taking into account the scarcity of specific studies in this area, it was considered great the need for a comprehensive survey about customers' satisfaction when handling these containers.     

Cognitive structure of occupational risks represented by a perceptual map

The main focus of risk management is technical and rational analysis about the operational risks and by those imposed by the occupational environment. In this work one seeks to contribute to the risk perception study and to better comprehend how a group of occupational safety students assesses a set of activities and environmental agents. In this way it was used theory sustained by psychometric paradigm and multivariate analysis tools, mainly multidimensional scaling, generalized Procrustes analysis and facets theory, in order to construct the perceptual map of occupational risks. The results obtained showed that the essential characteristics of risks, which were initially splited in 4 facets were detected and maintained in the perceptual map. It was not possible to reveal the cognitive structure of the group, because the variability of the students was too high. Differences among the risks analyzed could not be detected as well in the perceptual map of the group.     

Irregular working times and metabolic disorders among truck drivers: a review

A number of studies to better understand the complex physiological mechanism involved in regulating body weight have been conducted. More specifically, the hormones related to appetite, leptin and ghrelin, and their association to obesity have been a focus of investigation. Circadian patterns of these hormones are a new target of research. The behaviour of these hormones in individuals subject to atypical working times such as shiftwork remains unclear. Shiftwork is characterized by changes in biological rhythms and cumulative circadian phase changes, being associated with high rates of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Truck drivers, who work irregular shifts, frequently present a high prevalence of obesity, which might be associated with work-related factors and/or lifestyle. In this context, the aim of this paper was to discuss the relationship of body mass index, appetite-related hormones and sleep characteristics in truck drivers who work irregular shifts compared with day workers.