Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Cotton Spinning

Occupation : An Ergonomic Intervention

Dhananjay Ikhar1, Vishwas Deshpande2 & Sachin Untawale3

1&3

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Datta Meghe Institute of Engineering, Technology & Research, Wardha
2
Ramdeobaba Collge of Engineering & Management, Nagpur
E-mail : dhananjayikhar@yahoo.com, deshpandevs@rknec.edu, untawale@gmail.co

operation is performed in a squatting position in which

operators rotate spinning wheel sitting down on the hard
and flat surface with folded knees without any backrest.
Fig.1 shows the details of posture adapted.

Abstract Cotton spinning is an important operation in

small scale and cottage textile industries in India. A large
number of women workers in these industries perform
cotton spinning task adopting squatting posture in
traditional workshops. A Dutch Musculoskeletal
Questionnaire (DMQ) was used to evaluate 40 operators
regarding work related musculoskeletal disorders
WMSDs.
50% operators
were
suffering
with
musculoskeletal complaints due to working conditions .
They were observed and evaluated with the Rapid Upper
Limb Assessment (RULA) technique and their exposure to
the WMSDs was assessed. From the observations and
analysis of the result it was concluded that the health of
spinning operators were highly affected due to improper
body postures and workload. Twisting, bending and over
reaching are the resultant of poorly designed workstations.
These actions force them into non neutral position that
increases the overall discomfort and pain at the lower
back, neck and shoulders. Certain aspects regarding the
ergonomic evaluation for those workers are discussed in
this study.

The task of rotating the wheel for cotton spinning is

repetitive and continuous for 8 hours of working in a
day. In this condition, the back is bent excessively and
postures of different parts of body dramatically deviate
from the neutral. The design is essentially a compromise
between the operators biological needs, as determined
by the ergonomics guidelines and physical requirements
of the equipment [3].

Index Terms Ergonomics Evaluation, Musculoskeletal

Disorders, DMQ, RULA.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs)

are one of the greatest occupational health concerns
today.[1] Stooped and squatting postures are common in
developing countries such as India [3] especially in
small scale industries. Most of the manually energized
operations in these industries are carried out using such
postures. One such industry is cotton spinning industry
where operators are mostly women and 91% of them
suffer from WMSDs [2]. Cotton spinning wheel, more
commonly known as charkha, is hand-powered device
for spinning cotton yarn from pressure clamp. Spinning

Fig.1: working posture adapted in order to perform

spinning operation
The objective of the present study was to assess the
workstation and work postures and to study the
prevalence of musculoskeletal problems in cotton
spinning operators population.
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II. MATERIAL & METHODS

B. Work Posture Analysis

A. Selection of subject

RULA score was 7 for arm and wrist movements

(score A) and score 8 for neck, trunk and leg movements
(score B) for the task of rotating the spinning wheel. The
final grand score for the task was 7 which indicated
action level 4 attention i.e. immediate investigation and
changes are required in existing workstation. For
rejoining the broken thread, the grand score was found
to be 5 which indicated to action level 3 i.e. prompt
investigation and changes are required in existing
workstation. (Table 2).

This cross-sectional study was carried out in

spinning sections of two workshops in Wardha city of
Central India. All the workers present at the time of
study (total 40 workers) were included in the study after
obtaining oral consent.
B. Work Posture Assessment
We also carried out hierarchical task analysis [4].
The spinning operation consisted of 7 tasks. Out of
which most of the tasks are light and normal and hence
not considered for the posture analysis. Major tasks like
rotating the spinning wheel, rejoining of thread are
selected for further assessment.

Grand
score

Action Level

Rotating an input wheel

Rejoining of broken
thread

Tasks

The working postures were assessed by RULA

(Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) technique [5]. This
rapid upper limb assessment technique is used here to
assess the postural discomfort of the cotton spinning
female operators at their average working posture. This
was carried out with the aid of digital photography.
Later on stick diagrams were drawn to freeze frame
video records and eventually subjected to analysis.

Table. 2 Analysis of Working posture by the RULA

Method
C. Peceived work load and musculoskeletal complaints
Majority of the workers (62.5%) perceived the
dynamic load as heavy, half of the workers perceived
the repeatative load as moderate while 62.5% workers
perceived static load as heavy. Majority of them i.e.
57.5% perceived the ergonomic environment as poor.
(Table 3).

C. Peceived work load and musculoskeletal complaints

The standard Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaire
(DMQ) was used to study the workers perceptions of
static and dynamic loads, repetitive loads, and
ergonomic environmental and self perceived
musculoskeletal complaints [6].

Type of Load

Frequency

Percentage
(n=40)

Dynamic Load

III. RESULTS
A. Study subjects

Moderate

15

37.5

Heavy

25

62.5

Light

17

42.5

Moderate

20

50

Heavy

7.5

Repetitive Load

Total of 40 female subjects were studied. The mean

age was 38.5 years, mean height was 151 cms and mean
weight being 50.8 kg. The mean work experience was 8
years. On an average, they worked for 8 hours every
day. The lunch period is approximately about half an
hour after the continuous work of 3 hours. (Table 1).

Static Load
Light

Mean

SD

Range

Moderate

13

32.5

Age (year)

38.5

8.96

18-60

62.5

151

11.45

145-165

Weight (kg)

50.8

8.9

45-60

Heavy
Ergonomic
Environment
Good

25

Height (cm)

17

42.5

Work Experience (yr)

4.69

1-18

Poor

23

57.5

Weekly working Hours

48

1.35

45-50

Variable

Table. 3 Workload & Ergonomic Environment

Table 1. Sociodemographic charactiristics of study

participants.
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During the last 7 days, majority of the workers had

one or the more musculoskeletal complaints. 32.5%
workers had neck pain, 57.5% had upper back pain and
lower back pain, 65% had shoulder pain while 47.5%
had wrist/hand pain. (Table 4)
Ever Had Pain

Had during
last 7 days

Had During
Last 12
Months

Freq

Freq

Freq

Neck

21

52.5

13

32.5

32

80

Upper
back

26

65

23

57.5

32

80

Lower
back

26

65

23

57.5

40

100

Left

10

25

Shoulder

32

80

26

65
Right

14

35

Left

23

57.5

Right

25

62.5

Left

17

42.5

Right

11

27.5

Left

20

50

Right

20

50

Left

19

47.5

Right

21

52.5

Left

27

67

Right

25

62.5

Variable

Elbows

17

42.5

20

Wrist/
29

72.5

19

47.5

Hands
Hips/
8

20

7.5

Thighs
Knees

29

72.5

20

50

Ankles/
6

15

maintained this position for atleast 8 hours a day.

Grandjean has reported that sitting posture has a
disadvantage because it affects digestion and breathing
due to prolonged slacking of the abdominal
musculature and the purported ill effect of the flexion
of the lumber spine [9]. Since the women in our study
were involved in two jobs, spinning and farm working
as means of income to support their family and also
being married had family responsibilities and
household work also which could be a major factor for
their residual musculoskeltal pain. As there is residual
pain and fatigue, the productivity slows down. This
compels workers to speed up the work resulting in
increase in symptoms setting up a vicious cycle.
Remedy is the rest, which is bypassed in the process of
reaching the target. For the spinning, hand work is
cyclic and both the agonists and the antagonists get
some rest through the inhibition of the impulses.
However, the left upper limbsand hand pulling the
thread out, has no rest since the same muscles work
during pulling up concentrically and while bringing it
down eccentrically. Unless the design of charkha is
modified, this can not be rectified. However in addition
to the percentage of muscoloskeletal complaints we
have studied the working posture using Rapid Upper
limb Assessment Technique developed by McAtamney
and Corlett. The similar work is carried out by
Tirthankar
Ghosh,
Banibrata
Das,
Somnath
Gangopadhyay related to posture adapted by the
goldsmiths in their working conditions in India[10].
The RULA supports to assess the postural discomfort
of the operators at their average working posture. The
RULA score indicates that the posture is poor and
needs urgent attention for modification.

Feet

Table. 4. Physical Complaints attributed to work by

study projects

V. CONCLUSION

IV. DISCUSSION

From the observation and analysis of the result it

can be concluded that the female operators are working
in awkward postures with the potential risks of MSDs
primarily affecting shoulder and upper and lower back
region. The musculoskeletal pain in study participants
was high about 50% although the workload was light.
The overall workload values including ergonomic
environment indicates the improper design of the
workstation. Excessive bending, twisting and
overreaching are the resultant of poorly designed
workstation. These actions in the working condition lead
to the work related musculoskeletal disorders in the
operators. As they have to work for longer period in the
same posture in squatting positions, discomfort feeling
magnitude gets amplified. The ergonomic environment
also affects them to a great extent. So based on the
observations made in this study it could be concluded
that there is an ample scope for improvement in
workplace design, work posture and ergonomic

The results of this study revealed that the cotton

spinning operators are engaged in prolonged forward
bendingg posture in there working condition. Our study
showed that 50.62% as an average value for the
subjects suffering from at least one work- related
musculoskeletal pain. Similar study was done by
Montreuils, Laflames and Pellier on textile tufting
workers handling thread cone and have reported that
64.9% had one work related musculoskeletal pain
[7].The majority of the subjects in our study had
shoulder, back and wrist pain which could be due to
repetitive nature of the job and the poor design of
spinning wheel. Similar findings had been reported by
Punnelt, Robin Keyserling in female garment
workers[8]. This is a significant support to our study.
The musculoskeltal complaints are prominant in our
study because the female subjects study participants
were in a long sitting posture withour any backrest and

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environment. Improvement in workstation design in

spinning section from ergonomic view point will
definitely lead to the betterment in women operators
health and enhancement in productivity.
VI. REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

Robert Norman, Richard Wells. Ergonomic

Interventions for Reducing Musculoskeletal
Disorders: An Overview, Related Issues and
Future Directions, For the Institute for Work &
Health To the Royal Commission on Workers
Compensation in British Columbia, May 1998.
D. C. Metgud, Subhash Khatri, M. G. Mokashi, P.
N. Saha. An ergonomic study of women workers
in a woolen textile factory for identification of
health related problems, Indian Journal of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Vol.2 Issue 1, pp. 14-19, Apr. 2008.

[3]

Adarsh Kumar. Stooped and squatting posture

problems in agriculture: International perspective
(India), in Proc. International conference on
stooped & squatting postures in the workplace,
Okland, California, USA, July 29-30, 2004

[4]

Neville Stanton et al. Handbook of Human

Factors and Ergonomic Methods CRC press ltd.
Chapter 33 pp. 33-1, 2005

[5]

McAtamney, L., Corlett, E.N. RULA: A survey

method for the investigation of work related
upper limb disorders, Applied Ergonomics,Vol.
24(2), pp. 91-99,1993

[6]

Hildebrandt, V.H., Bongers, P.M., van Dijk, F.J.,

Kemper,
H.C.,
and
Dul,
J,
Dutch
musculoskeletal questionnaire: description and
basic qualities, Ergonomics, 44, 10381055.
2001

[7]

Montreuils S, Laflames L, Pellier C. Profile of

musculoskeletal pain suffered from textile tufting
workers handling thread cones according to work,
age and employment duration Journal of
Applied Ergonomics, vol. 27, pp. 85-91,1996

[8]

Punnett L, Robins JM, Wegman DH, Keyserlings

WM, Soft tissue disorders in the upper limbs of
female garment workers Scand I Work
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[9]

Grandjean E. Fitting the task to the man: An

Ergonomic Approach, London, Taylor &
Francis, 1982.

[10]

Tirthankar Ghosh, Banibrata Das,Somnath

Gangopadhyay. Work-related Musculoskeletal
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Community Medicine, Vol.35, Iss. 2, pp. 321-325,
Apr. 2010.

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