POSTURAL STABILITY EFFECTS IN LOW SEAM MINING TASKS

地下低煤层矿井中的手动物料搬运任务存在多种人体工程学风险因素，对矿工的神经肌肉系统提出了过高的要求。 受限姿势下的材料搬运和缩放任务将导致潜在的稳定性/平衡损失增加，因此，举升任务分析应包括有关姿势稳定性/平衡的信息。 目前，不存在针对在暴露于地下矿井中常见的单独和/或组合的人体工学风险因素时以静态弯腰姿势和动态（步态）弯腰姿势进行物料搬运的此类信息。拟议的研究提供了通过与矿工进行的一系列实验（对每个工人进行 41 小时的测试）来收集此类信息的设计。 例如，在拟议的研究中要评估的所有实验条件（包括限制工作姿势、任务类型、表面光滑度、表面不平坦以及环境照明和眩光等风险因素）将使用 D 节中描述的既定客观标准对姿势不稳定和/或失去平衡进行排序。此外，在执行模拟工业任务（D 节中描述）期间经历的滑倒/跌倒次数将使我们能够确定姿势不稳定和/或失去平衡的测量与实际发生率之间的关系模拟环境中滑倒/跌倒的次数。结果将增强（通过添加新的风险因素效应）我们现有的与工作场所风险因素（包括环境、工作任务因素）相关的姿势不稳定性预测统计模型。 这些发现将为未来设计基于采矿工人群体的前瞻性研究提供一个框架，以解决以下问题。 A) 为采矿工作场所设计提供指南，以留出足够的地板间距，以便工人可以增加支撑基础，最大限度地减少姿势不稳定的可能性。 B) 结果可用作有关矿山相关风险因素的各种组合下姿势不稳定性的科学数据输入，作为 MSHA 培训计划的输入，其中正在开发包含人为因素问题的软件。

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.