Health Risk Assessment of Vibration Generated by Tractor Exploitation to the Drivers

Abstract

Drivers of agricultural tractors are exposed during operation, a number of harmful effects, such as high or low temperatures, high humidity, dust, noise, etc. Among the adverse factors there are vibrations from the engine, during the operating, and are transmitted through the seat, floor and commands of the vehicle to the driver's entire body. Exposure to high levels of vibration, in the long term, can lead to serious health problems and permanent damage of the driver's health. Therefore, the health risk assessment of vibration for the professional tractor drivers is extremely important in terms of developing of protection mechanisms. Although the usual procedure of risk assessment involves the study of all hazards and harmful effects that may occur in a specific workplace, in this work is done only health risk assessment tractor drivers from the harmful effects of vibration, whereby the assessment used a simple 5x5 matrix method. Evaluation was carried out using the results of measuring the level of exposure to the driver in real operating conditions, on the different tractors. Part of the results is available from international studies dealing with this issue, a part of the result its own vibration measurements on the domestic IMT tractors. The risk assessment showed that drivers and operators of heavy machinery are working in conditions of increased risk of vibration. For this reason, it`s given a number of organizational and technical measures that should be taken by employer to reduce increased risk of or completely reduced risk.

Vozači poljoprivrednih traktora izloženi su, tokom rada, mnogobrojnim štetnim faktorima, među kojima se nalaze i vibracije. U pitanju su opšte vibracije koje nastaju u motoru, pri radu traktora, i prenose se, preko sedišta, poda i komandi vozila do celog tela vozača (whole body vibration). Izloženost ovim vibracijama, u dužem periodu, može dovesti do ozbiljnih zdravstvenih problema vozača. Zato je procena rizika po zdravlje od vibracija, kod profesionalnih vozača traktora, izuzetno bitna sa aspekta razvijanja zaštitnih mehanizama. Iako uobičajena procedura procene rizika podrazumeva proučavanje svih opasnosti i štetnosti koje se mogu pojaviti na određenom radnom mestu, u radu je urađena samo procena rizika po zdravlje vozača traktora od štetnog delovanja vibracija. Za ovu procenu korišćen je matrični model 5x5, pri čemu je procena pokazala da vozači i rukovaoci teškom mehanizacijom rade u uslovima povećanog rizika od vibracija. Iz tog razloga dato je nekoliko organizacionih i tehničkih mera koje je poslodavac dužan da preduzme kako bi se povećani rizik smanjio ili potpuno redukovao.