Always watchful of your arrival and departure, baggage handlers wait to serve you how baggage handling in an airport can entail in biomechanical risks

摘要

Baggage handling is a high risk job that presents awkward postures, overexertion and repetition in their activities. Ergonomic studies have used biomechanical and psychophysical approaches to evaluate the level of risk of MSDs in baggage handlers. Most of the studies target the activities in the aircraft baggage compartment. The objective of this study was to determine the risk level of MSDs in baggage handlers of the Quito airport through the application of biomechanical risk factors identification tools, in order to propose control strategies that could reduce the mentioned risk. The study analyzed the manual handling activities performed in the baggage tunnel. Four activities were identified and 95 baggage handlers of the Quito airport were evaluated using the RULA. Also, the Maximum Acceptable Weight of Lift (MAWL) was applied to determine the lift capacity of baggage handlers in the Quito airport. The RULA analysis determined a total score of 7, Action Level 4, for each of the activities evaluated, for the 100% of the baggage handlers. The activities performed by TAME and ANDES were found to be equal, but their lifting frequencies were not. On the other hand, the MAWL for the population of male baggage handlers in the Quito airport was determined to be 7 kg, which compared to the actual average weight of the bags lifted is much lower. Therefore, this study determined that baggage handling activities performed in the baggage tunnel present a high risk of developing an upper MSD, and work conditions should be changed immediately. Finally, administrative and engineering controls were proposed in order to reduce the biomechanical risk level that result from baggage handling activities.