An ergonomic assessment of the airline baggage handler

41participants from the Royal Dutch Airlines and Aero Ground services. The surveyinformation collected from the handlers was also compiled and then averaged.3.4.1 ResultsIn the statistical analysis of the data produced by the trials, it was observed that the higherthe height was set on the mock-up conveyor belt the lesser the amount of flexion wasimposed on the torso. The same held true for the rotation of the torso as well. Theobserved values for all flexion and rotation of the trunk gathered around 40, 55, 75, and100 cm, of which 100 cm caused the least amount of flexion and rotation in the trunk.The best speed for the mock-up conveyor was 0.35 m/s, which produced thelowest value for the trunk flexion; whereas 0.60 m/s produced the highest value of trunkflexion between 45 to 75 degrees. The explanation for this was that if the speed was toofast, the baggage handlers could not read the label destination of the bag until it hadpassed them making it so that the handler would have to turn his body to retrieve thebaggage.For trunk ration the speed of 0.60 m/s produced the highest values for all threeranges of rotation; rotations 0-15, 15-45, and 45-75 degrees, respectively. Overall,however, the changes in velocity were found not to affect the body postures all thatsignificantly.It can be concluded that the higher conveyor height allows the baggage handler towork more upright, which from an ergonomic standpoint is more ideal circumstance.The upright the body posture the less the magnitude of the moment produced by theweight of the trunk (Chaffin and Anderson, 1984).