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Funded by: Andreas Stihl-Stiftung, Badstraße 115, 71336 Waiblingen, Germany; BM für Arbeit, Gesundheit und Soziales, Stubenring 1, A-1011 Wien, Austria; Stiftung 120 Jahre Universität für Bodenkultur, Gregor Mendel-Strasse 33, A-1180 Wien, Austria; Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management , Stubenring 1, A-1012 Wien, Austria

Abstract: Traditional female work activities in forestry, like planting, spreading and clearing around young trees can often not be mechanised. Work design methods to improve the ergonomic situation at the work place must be taken. Beside the classical main stress and strain areas (physically hard work, incorrect ergonomics, climate, use of chemicals) they suffer extra stress caused by house- and sometimes farm work.
Multidimensional measuring concepts considering physical and psychical aspects for ergonomic analysis are still unsuccessfully used.
The goal of this work is to characterise the stress and strain situation of female forest workers and to develop strategies for ergonomic improvement.
The workload and difficulty of various tasks will be recorded with the Job Analysing Procedure (AET).
An experimental layout comparing stress and strain areas on females who are doing housework after the job in contrast to women who are part time farmers is developed.
The result is a strain prediction model for female forest workers, which is able to predict strain (heart rate) depending on various factors (Temperature, Physical Working Capacity, Index after Lundquist etc.). Based on this model it is possible to show the differences between these two groups of female forest workers.

Keywords: occupational health; ergonomy; forest technology; women research; occupational science;

Publications

Berger, C. (2002): Belastungs- und Beanspruchungssituation bei Forstarbeiterinnen: Evaluierung, Analyse und Verbesserungsmaßnahmen.

Dissertation an der Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Institut für Alpine Naturgefahren und Forstliches Ingenieurwesen, 110

Berger, C. (1988): Körperhaltung mittels Balkencode - Erhebung verbessern..

http://www.boku.ac.at/forstt FullText