Proactive Safety Measures: Quantifying the Upright Standing Stability after Sustained Rebar Tying Postures
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 144, Issue 4
Abstract
Fall accidents (FAs) constitute a substantial proportion of construction accidents. While the predominant prevention strategy relies on passive approaches (e.g., guardrails), research on proactive measures is lacking, which may reduce the incidence of FAs in high-risk construction trades. Literature suggests that rebar work is one of the foremost FA-prone construction trades. Since rebar workers spend hours in rebar tying postures with periodic postural transitions, they hypothetically are at risk of posttask loss of balance. While recent research showed that a sitting stool could significantly alleviate physical discomfort during rebar tying, the current study aimed to investigate temporal changes in standing balance (using a force plate) after simulated rebar tying in squatting, stooping, and stool-sitting while the respective postural load during rebar tying was quantified by electromyography and oximeters. Results demonstrated that stool-sitting resulted significantly better posttask standing balance than squatting or stooping, which might be attributed to differential postural loadings. Overall, the findings reported herein underpin the importance of using safety informatics to proactively analyze task-specific fall hazards, to monitor workers’ balance, and to implement proper prevention strategies for workers at risk of falls.
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Data Availability Statement
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information about the Journal’s data sharing policy can be found here http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29CO.1943-7862.0001263.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support of Hong Kong Construction Industry Council (CIC), under the project Waistband Enabled Construction Workers Lower-Back Health Monitoring System. The authors would also like to thank Mr. Jie Dai, Mr. Man Cheung, and Mr. Lam Chun Kin for providing technical support and helping the data collection.
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Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 144 • Issue 4 • April 2018
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©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 12, 2017
Accepted: Oct 10, 2017
Published online: Jan 30, 2018
Published in print: Apr 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jun 30, 2018
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