International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | February 2023 | Vol 10 | Issue 2 Page 740 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Chatterjee T et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2023 Feb;10(2):740-745 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Postural strain of spinner and casting workers of a small-scale aluminium utensil making factory Tapomoy Chatterjee 1 *, Sahana Mazumder 1 , Somnath Gangopadhyay 2 , Tamal Ghorai 1 , Amalendu Samanta 3 INTRODUCTION The concept of ergonomics in workplace design is ignored in most of the industries. This problem is very much prevalent around the world, including India. The problem of workplace design should be thought of at the blueprint stage involving an ergonomist along with process engineers, and production engineers. The workplace design is basically governed by the two main dimensions, i.e., clearance and reach, where clearance will be focused on taller individuals and reach for shorter. Lacing of which force the workmen to assume awkward posture, poor posture, and bad posture. Assuming those posture by the workmen are either due to inadequate workspace or due to lack of awareness of the workmen. In most of the unorganized sectors in India, the workers are forced to work in low wage where their work effort is maximum but occupational safety is highly neglected. 1 ABSTRACT Background: Small scale establishments often neglect the worker safety and comfort which impacts both productivity and workers’ safety. Various studies have been conducted in such small -scale establishments but not much has been done on aluminium utensil manufacturing factories. Spinning and casting are two important processes for manufacturing of aluminium utensils. But not much has been studied to assess the hazards of the involved workers. The present study is an attempt to explore this previously unnoticed area. Methods: The study was conducted in different small scale aluminium utensil factories in West Bengal. Sixteen spinners and seventeen casting workers were evaluated for this study. The analysis of posture was done by rapid upper limb assessment (RULA), rapid entire body assessment (REBA) and Ovako working posture analysis system (OWAS). The body parts discomfort was assessed by using Cornell musculoskeletal discomfort questionnaire and Nordic questionnaire was also used to assess the pain they experience. Results: All the casting workers are experiencing postural load beyond the recommended limit whereas in case of spinner, five workers experienced less postural load due to favorable work conditions. Casting workers mainly suffered from low back, neck, right shoulder pain whereas spinners suffered from wrist and finger pain followed by lower extremity pain. Conclusions: Both group of workers are experiencing postural load and discomfort. In case of casting workers, the prevalence was high and immediate interventions are needed. The discomfort is particularly high during the end of shifts. Keywords: Nordic questionnaire, Postural load, Body part discomfort, Cornell musculoskeletal discomfort questionnaire, Musculoskeletal pain 1 Department of Physiology, Rammohan College, Calcutta, West Bengal, India 2 Department of Physiology, Rajabazar Science College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India 3 Department of Occupational Health, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Received: 29 November 2022 Accepted: 12 January 2023 *Correspondence: Tapomoy Chatterjee, E-mail: chatterjeetapomoy9@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20230231