Energy expenditure and physiological strain of pitsawing activity in Agroforestry

Abstract

Heart rate is one of the accurate means to evaluate the physiological or functional demands of work on the worker. Hence the study was undertaken to know the workload of manual timber sawing activity. The results revealed that, the cardiac cost of work while sawing was 68.9 beats/min and during recovery was 25.09 beats/min. The average working heart rate during sawing was observed to be 135 (±17.83) beats/min and the average energy expenditure was 12.85 kj/min. The task was classified as heavy work. The energy spent by the topman to pull the saw upwards was 13.36 kj/min which was significantly higher than energy spent by the pitman (10.88 kj/min) when pulling the saw down wards. To minimize fatigue a rest allowance of 28.88 minutes for every 30 minutes of work is recommended. Reduction of workload load can be achieved by improving the hand tools and work environment.

Keywords: Heart Rate, Cardiac Cost of Work, Rest Allowance