Abstract
The main objective of this study was to evaluate the physiological strain imposed on individuals engaged in unloading boxes from a truck. The actual operation was performed in one of the local industries, and was videotaped and timed. This operation served as a basis for a simulation study in the authors' laboratory. Six subjects participated in this study. Since the containers utilized in the actual operation varied greatly, empirical distributions derived from the box sizes and weights handled at that industry were developed based on a sample of 466 boxes. The frequency of handling was 20 times/min. The task duration was 30 min. Heart rate and oxygen consumption were recorded every 5 min for a period of 5 min. The results showed that the task performed can be classified as very heavy work compared to industrial tasks reported in the literature. Physiological responses showed a significant increase over time.
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