Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Tea Pluckers / Nurhidayah Masri...[et al.]

Tea is cultivated in Asian and African Countries, while the whole world is its consumer including the U.S., Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Brunei. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ranked Malaysia as the 18th largest producer of tea in Asia. For the tea pluckers, they have to work in varying condition and situation like temperature, humidity, rainfall, and velocity. Moreover, all workers performed their work for the whole day and at the same time they have to maintain awkward static work posture while plucking in repetitive movement. Unnatural and static posture has also been described as contributing factor to Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs) in different types of occupations. Therefore, this study will be focusing on observation by using digital camera through the questionnaire survey on the workers to identify a level of body discomfort area and source of injury. Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) method will be used to evaluate posture, forces and muscle activity. As expected, with new administrative controls and direct practices can reduce or prevent exposure of ergonomics risk factors.