Ergonomics effect among waste collector / Muhamad Nurazri Zairuddin

Musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) is the ergonomic aspects related to health impact which lead to occupational injury and disability, commonly experienced by waste collector worker in many countries. MSDs problem caused from physical and manual handling activity, repetitive movement and heavy load work. The aim of this study is: (i) to determine the prevalence of ergonomic effect among solid waste collector, (ii) to determine the risk factors leading to ergonomic effect among waste collector activities and (iii) to identify the association between discomfort of body parts experienced by respondents and individual posture scores. A cross sectional study was carried out to collect data among 76 waste collectors under Hulu Selangor Local Council (MDHS). Standard Modified Nordic Questionnaire (SNMQ) is used to obtain the demographic data, prevalence of discomfort body region in past 12 month. Besides that, photo and video of worker during working are recorded in way to get the postural score by using
Rapid Entire Body Assessments (REBA) tools. The prevalence rank of discomfort body part is to determine which the most body part had MSDs experienced in past 12 months. The result shows that lower back (84.2%), upper back (69.7%), wrist (68.4%), neck (64.5%) and shoulder (59.2%) were top 5 rank body part discomfort by
correspondents. Majority postural body score (REBA Score) of respondent (66.3%) falls under High Risk Category where the score is between 8 to 10. Immediate corrective action and control plan are needed to minimize the risk. Association between prevalence body part and postural body score are shown non-significant p>0.05 for all body parts between these variables. As conclusion, waste worker is exposed with many ergonomic risk factors causes from the physical working condition in their daily routine.