Occupational Safety: Portable Exposure Assessment System for Prevention of Musculoskeletal Injury

CDC researchers have developed the Portable Exposure Assessment System (PEAS), a field-based, remotely deployed tool to monitor and provide early warning of working conditions that have a high likelihood of musculoskeletal injury. PEAS is a noninvasive, real-time, instrument-based system. Sensor technology simultaneously measures and collects data regarding the body loads and awkward postures imposed by package handling as well as driving-related, low-frequency vibrations. Wireless technology establishes communication links between the sensors and a data logger and between the data logger and a smart phone with positioning and text messaging capabilities. The data logger records the body weight, posture, and vibration data over time and transfers the data to a databank for archiving and further data analysis. During data recording, the data logger detects the data that either exceed the lifting index limit defined by the NIOSH Lifting Equation or the human whole-body vibration exposure limit defined by the ISO-2631-1 Human Exposure to Whole-Body Vibration standard. The data logger wirelessly transmits the data segment, which contains the marked out-of-limit data, to the smart phone in real-time. The smart phone then automatically dials a predefined number and sends an alert text message and alarm detailing the exposure/safety data, the GPS location of the occurrence, the date/time stamps, and a corresponding safety message. Additionally, the smart phone stores the sent text message for archiving and further data analysis.