Environmental and Ergonomic Risk Factors of Professional Gardeners

The present study was undertaken to investigate the various activities performed by the gardeners and assessing the risk factors faced by gardeners on environmental and ergonomic aspects. The study was conducted on 150 sample size of male gardeners in Ludhiana city by using purposive sampling technique to ensure that the respondents, have worked for the last 5 years in gardening as their main occupation. Primary data were collected with the help of structured interview schedule. Findings of the study unveils that weeding activity absorb most of the time (on average 6.26 hr/day) performing activity in squatting/ sitting/bending posture with frequent twisting and turning. Gardeners work most of the time in unshaded outdoor areaswhich eventually make them susceptible to environmental risk and the extreme environmental risk perceived by workers during gardening was heat stress (mean score=3.79). Indeed, heat stress has a straight effect on workers output because of poor performance and work-related illness/injuries. Other than that, the ergonomic risk also contributes in physical fatigue and discomfort during task performance, awkward working posture (mean score=4.56) was perceived to be high ergonomic risk among gardeners which may led to musculoskeletal disorders in the body.