Ergonomic Risk Assessment of Rubber Tappers Using Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA)

Natural rubber is a global commodity of great importance. It is harvested from tree species whose latex contains a significant amount of rubber by a process called rubber tapping, a physically demanding work activity in which rubber tapping workers cut the rubber tree bark, causing the latex to exude from the inner layer. While performing rubber tapping, workers have to adopt ergonomically awkward postures involving flexion and/or extension, lateral bending and twisting in the wrists, arms, trunk and neck. Since tappers usually tap more than 300 trees in a day, they are repeatedly exposed to these awkward postures and thereby subjected to varying levels of risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). A study was conducted among twenty-five rubber tappers, mainly in the northern district of Kozhikode in Kerala, India. The rubber tapping activity of each worker was observed directly and also recorded on video. The working postures were analysed based on the recorded videos using the ergonomic assessment tool, REBA. This study implemented REBA for posture analysis of rubber tappers to assess the risk levels of MSDs prevalent among them. It was found that a vast majority of workers (84%) were at a medium level of risk of MSDs, whereas the remaining 16% of the participants were at a high risk, needing corrective actions to be taken soon.