An ergonomic assessment of the airline baggage handler

34The section that refers to back belt supports was interesting (Table 3.9). Ninetybaggage handlers answered no to the question—have you worn a back support belt toprevent injuries, which is a little more than half at 58%. More interesting still was thatonly ten baggage handlers, about 6%, experienced back injury while wearing a supportbelt. This answer is misleading simply because it does not give a clear percentage of howmany baggage handlers used support belts in the first place. More than half of thebaggage handlers surveyed felt that back support belts improve a wearer's ability to dobaggage handling tasks (93), helps prevent lost time back injuries (94), and that backsupport belts should be worn for all lifting tasks (86). However, despite this anoverwhelming number of baggage handlers 133 (78%) felt that back support belts doesnot make lifting technique training unnecessary (133, 85%).