ArticleInternational archives of occupational and environmental health2016
Measured by the oxygen uptake in the field, the work of refuse collectors is particularly hard work: Are the limit values for physical endurance workload too low?
Article in International archives of occupational and environmental health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global systematic review of occupational health and safety outcomes among sanitation and hygiene workers.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Physical workload and cardiopulmonary parameters in relation to individual capacity of bulk waste workers - a cross-sectional field-study.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2023Article
- Targeting workload to ameliorate risk of heat stress in industrial sugarcane workers.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2023Observational
- Respiratory Inductance Plethysmography to Assess Fatigability during Repetitive Work.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Comparison of physical workload and physical work capacity among municipality cleaners in Shiraz to determine number of workers needed to counterbalance physical workload.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2022Article
- Letter to the editors referring to Fikenzer, S., Uhe, T., Lavall, D., Rudolph, U., Falz, R., Busse, M., Hepp, P., & Laufs, U. (2020). Effects of surgical and FFP2/N95 face masks on cardiopulmonary exercise capacity. Clinical Research in Cardiology.Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society · 2020Article
- The First Lactate Threshold Is a Limit for Heavy Occupational Work.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2020Article
- The physical performance of workers on offshore wind energy platforms: is pre-employment fitness testing necessary and fair?International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2019Article
- Oxygen Consumption (V'O2) and physical Strainas measured by the occupational activity of cleaning personnel.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2018Article
- Health status and health-related quality of life of municipal waste collection workers - a cross-sectional survey.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeCollecting waste is regarded as a benchmark for "particularly heavy" work. This study aims to determine and compare the workload of refuse workers in the field. We examined heart rate (HR) and oxygen uptake as parameters of workload during their daily work.
methodsSixty-five refuse collectors from three task-specific groups (residual and organic waste collection, and street sweeping) of the municipal sanitation department in Hamburg, Germany, were included. Performance was determined by cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) under laboratory conditions. Additionally, the oxygen uptake (VO2) and HR under field conditions (1-h morning shift) were recorded with a portable spiroergometry system and a pulse belt.
resultsThere was a substantial correlation of both absolute HR and VO2 during CPX [HR/VO2 R 0.89 (SD 0.07)] as well as during field measurement [R 0.78 (0.19)]. Compared to reference limits for heavy work, 44% of the total sample had shift values above 30% heart rate reserve (HRR); 34% of the individuals had mean HR during work (HRsh) values that were above the HR corresponding to 30% of individual maximum oxygen uptake (VO2,max). All individuals had a mean oxygen uptake (VO2,1h) above 30% of VO2,max.
conclusionHR as well as the measurement of VO2 can be valuable tools for investigating physiological workload, not only under laboratory conditions but also under normal working conditions in the field. Both in terms of absolute and relative HR and oxygen consumption, employment as a refuse collector should be classified in the upper range of defined heavy work. The limit of heavy work at about 33% of the individual maximum load at continuous work should be reviewed.
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