Laboratory evaluation of the complex interplay between whole-body vibration and spinal posture

全身振动（WBV）影响重型移动机械操作员，对7%的劳动力构成重大健康风险。振动暴露在不同的工业环境中有所不同，例如在采矿和林业环境之间。工业座椅是一种工程控制措施，可以有效地减少振动暴露，但我们观察到，个别座椅最适合在特定的振动环境中衰减WBV，它们并不是在所有应用中都能达到最佳效果。我开发了一个座位选择算法来匹配振动环境下的座位。然而，座椅只是复杂工作环境的一个组成部分。为了获得安全操作车辆所需的视野，车辆驾驶员经常会采取一些尴尬的姿势，比如转动脖子和躯干。姿势直接影响振动在全身的传递。例如，脊柱姿势影响生物动力学反应，如表观质量和座位到头部的振动传递率。

Whole-body vibration (WBV) affects heavy mobile machinery operators and is a significant health risk for 7% of the workforce. Vibration exposures vary between industrial environments, for example between mining and forestry environments. Industrial seats are one engineering control measure that can effectively reduce vibration exposures, but we have observed that individual seats are best-suited to attenuate WBV in specific vibration environments – they do not work optimally in all applications. I developed a seat selection algorithm for matching seats with vibration environments within my last Discovery Grant. However, the seats are merely one component of the complex workplace environment. Vehicle operators frequently adopt awkward postures, such as neck and trunk rotations, in order to gain the necessary field of view to safely operate the vehicle. Posture directly influences the transmission of vibrations through the body. For example, spinal posture influences the biodynamic responses such as apparent mass and the seat-to-head vibration transmissibility.