How do you pick strawberries that grow on the ground without stooping or squatting?
This is a question growers of strawberries and other crops strive to answer. Growers know that hours spent in stooping and squatting postures may lead to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) but may not have the clear ergonomic interventions found in other industries. What they also know is that WMSDs from stooping and squatting incur expenses both directly and indirectly through higher workers compensation costs and higher turnover.
A closer look at the problem might help explain why there isn’t a straightforward fix that works in every situation. Thinking more broadly and using a combination of controls is the key to helping growers reduce worker injuries caused by long periods of stooping and squatting.
No Definitive Data Exists on How Much Is Too Much
While it is clear that work done in stooped or squatting postures is linked to high incidence of low back disorders (LBDs), there haven’t been many ergonomic studies conducted on these postures as a primary risk factor of LBDs. Most studies on LBD risk factors focus on manual materials handling and whole-body vibration.
Without a clear picture of how much time spent stooping or squatting causes WMSDs, employers have a hard time developing controls. An Iowa State University study conducted several years ago compared the four common harvesting postures of full kneeling, squatting, stooping, and kneeling on a knee support. This study found that squatting and stooping put more strain on the lower back than kneeling, and suggested that workers should alternate between the various postures.
But when workers are paid through a piece-rate system and therefore motivated to work at a quick pace, they tend to resort to stooping. This posture allows greater mobility and demands less energy than the up-and-down movements of kneeling and squatting.
Mechanized Solutions Haven’t Eliminated the Postures for Certain Types of Crops
So far there hasn’t been a cotton-gin equivalent to revolutionize the way certain types of crops are harvested. Field crops like corn, wheat, and soybeans are heavily mechanized and don’t require large amounts of hand labor, but table-food crops like strawberries, lettuce, and blueberries require the very human abilities of sensory perception, judgment, and manual dexterity.
Some tool improvements have reduced the need to stoop or squat. These enhancements include certain long-handled tools, elevated tables and weeding stands, harvest carts, and blueberry rakes. But these tools tend to be one-off fixes that work for a certain type of crop or only for a smaller operation.
Every now and then, new machinery comes along that makes some ergonomic improvements for workers. For example, in strawberry harvesting—one of the most labor-intensive operations in production agriculture—a machine introduced in the early 2000s reduced human work time by one-third or more. It also altered the mix of motions and postures in farm work. The machine operates as a mobile station for stacking flats of berries after they’re picked. While it did reduce slip and fall injuries, it did nothing to reduce the stooping and squatting postures of the harvest.
But there’s always hope for new technology. Exoskeletons—a wearable device used to support human strength and mobility (yes, robot arms)—are already being studied for ways they could be used in agriculture.
Regulations on Stooping and Squatting Are as Ambiguous as the Solution
Currently there’s no national OSHA standard for stooping and squatting other than the General Duty Clause. California regulators attempted to minimize the need for these postures by requiring that workers stop weeding, thinning, and hot-capping (placing cones over plants) by hand and start using long-handled tools instead.
Regulators left the door open for employers by allowing hand operations to be done when there is “no reasonable alternative.” If an employee sustains injury during hand operations, the employer must justify the exception to Cal/OSHA. Employers using the exception are also required to give an extra five minutes of rest with pay for a total of 15 minutes per 4 hours of work.
Since even regulators seem to acknowledge that there’s no clear, across-the-board fix for reducing WMSDs from stooping and squatting, employers are left to find their own solutions and balance them with productivity and other concerns. If the employer is in a situation where he or she can’t redesign the tools or work methods, it comes down to just a few choices:
- Training workers on the importance of strengthening abdominal muscles to prevent back injury.
- Establishing a daily stretching routine at the start of each shift.
- Providing extra rest periods.
- Using job rotation to intersperse tasks that require stooping and squatting with others that require walking or sitting.
WMSDs are tough to control in any industry, but they’re especially challenging in agriculture, where even a small change in an activity such as harvesting affects crew configuration, work pace, pay scheme, and more. Still, employers have a responsibility and a desire to keep their workers healthy and on the job. Embedding a safety management solution like Safesite is the best way to create a safe and productive environment for the grower, the task, and the employee.
