The Role of a New Harvest Platform in Alleviation of Apple Workers' Occupational Injuries During Harvest.

Abstract

. Migrant seasonal workers manually harvest apples throughout the U.S. using ladders and buckets due to the care required for prevention of bruises and other physical damage. The motions associated with hand harvest have potential to cause musculoskeletal disorders of the neck, shoulder, and back/trunk. A prototype harvest platform was developed, aimed at alleviating occupational injuries and increasing harvest productivity by replacing ladders for reaching high apples. This study evaluated the activities of three harvest methods, i.e., conventional harvest (using ladders and buckets), harvest platform (for high apples only), and combined method (conventional harvest for low and middle apples and harvest platform for high apples) using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) method performed by trained researchers. Postures/activities with RULA grand scores > 5 were categorized as awkward (causing occupational injuries); otherwise, they were considered comfortable (not leading to health issues). Experimental results demonstrated that awkward activities in conventional harvest were mainly related to the use of ladders. Activities with the harvest platform were comfortable due to the elimination of ladders and buckets. The combined method significantly decreased the workers' time spent in awkward postures (from 64% with conventional harvest to 30% with the combined method) by eliminating awkward activities and increased the overall harvest productivity by approximately 40%. Apple growers and workers are therefore suggested to use the combined method to replace conventional harvest.