POSTURAL STABILITY EFFECTS IN LOW SEAM MINING TASKS

薄煤层矿井下人工搬运物料的作业存在大量的人机工程学风险因素，对矿工的神经肌肉系统提出了过高的要求。 在受限姿势下进行材料搬运和缩放任务将导致潜在的稳定性/平衡性损失增加，因此，提升任务分析应包括有关姿势稳定性/平衡的信息。 目前，对于处于静态弯腰姿势和动态（步态）弯腰姿势的材料搬运，当暴露于地下矿井中常见的单独和/或组合的人体工程学风险因素时，不存在这样的信息。拟议的研究提供了一系列实验（对每个工人进行41小时的测试）收集这些信息的设计。 例如，拟在拟定研究中评价的所有实验条件（包括风险因素，如受限的工作姿势、任务类型、表面光滑度、表面不平整度以及环境照明和眩光）将使用D节中描述的既定客观标准对姿势不稳定和/或平衡丧失进行排序。 此外，在执行模拟工业任务（在D节中描述）期间经历的滑倒/福尔斯次数将允许我们确定姿势不稳定和/或平衡丧失的测量与模拟环境中滑倒/福尔斯的实际发生率之间的关系。结果将提供增强（通过增加新的风险因素的影响），我们现有的统计模型预测姿势不稳定与工作场所的风险因素，包括环境，工作任务因素。 这些研究结果将提供一个框架，在此框架内，未来的采矿工人人口为基础的前瞻性研究可以设计解决以下问题。 A）为采矿工作场所设计提供指导方针，以允许适当的足够地板间距，以便工人可以增加其支撑基础，最大限度地减少姿势不稳定的可能性。 B）研究结果可用作在各种地雷相关危险因素组合下姿势不稳定的科学数据输入，作为MSHA培训方案的输入，该方案正在开发软件，以包括人为因素问题。

The manual material handling tasks in underground low seam mines present a myriad of ergonomic risk factors which places inordinate demands on miners' neuromuscular system. Material handling and scaling tasks in restricted posture will cause potential loss of stability/balance to increase therefore, lifting task analysis should include information about postural stability/balance. Currently such information does not exist for material handling in a static stooped posture and dynamic (gait) stooped posture while exposed to individual and/or combined ergonomic risk factors commonly found in an underground mine. The proposed study provides the design to collect such information in a series of experiments (41 hours of testing on each worker) with miner workers. For example, all experimental conditions (encompassing risk factors such as, restricted work postures, task type, surface slipperiness, surface unevenness, and environmental lighting and glare) to be evaluated in the proposed study will be rank-ordered for postural instability and/or loss of balance using established objective criteria described in Section D. Also, number of slips/falls experienced during the performance of simulated industrial tasks (described in Section D) will allow us to determine the relationship between measures of postural instability and/or loss of balance and actual incidence of slips/falls in the simulated environment. The results will provide enhancement (by adding new risk factor effects) to our existing statistical model of prediction of postural instability assoicated with work place risk factors encompassing environmental, job-task factors. These findings will provide the framework within which future mining worker- population-based prospective studies can be designed to address the following issues. A) Provide guidelines for mining workplace design to allow appropriate sufficient floor spacing so that workers can increase their base of support, minimizing the potential of postural instability. B) The results can be used as scientific data input about postural instability under various combinations of mine related risk factors as input into the MSHA's training programs where softwares are being developed to include human factors issues.