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This study investigated the extent to which a sample of Italian users comprehended safety pictorials used on agricultural machinery. A questionnaire with 12 safety pictorials was administered to 248 users of agricultural machinery. For each of the pictorials, the participants were asked to select the most appropriate description of four written choices. The investigated safety pictorials were, in general, not well comprehended. Two different classes of participants were identified, each with a different level of comprehension. The participants with better comprehension were characterized by the regular use of agricultural machinery and frequent previous exposure to pictorials. The need for training courses focusing on safety pictorials and their meanings, as well as the need for improvement to the pictorials themselves to make them more easily comprehended, is discussed.

Aim of study: We tested the perceived quality in use of a prototype of a handling supporting device, developed through a user-centred design process intended for rear-mounted foldable rollover protective-structures (FROPSs).Area of study: The study was performed in the Province of Cuneo, which has the largest number of farms and the highest share of utilized agricultural area (UAA) in Piedmont Region, NW Italy.Material and methods: Three groups of users, novice-novice (NN), novice-expert (NE) and expert-expert (EE) were asked to raise two rear-mounted FROPSs: a traditional one and a second one equipped with a supporting device which consisted of a gas spring and a rod. A questionnaire has been used to record the perceived quality in use of both FROPSs (effort, physical discomfort, temporal demand and ease of use) and perceived usefulness and attitudes toward the adoption of the supporting device.Main results: All groups reported less physical effort, more stable postures, higher ease of use in handling the FROPS equipped with the supporting device; NN users, in particular, declared to be willing to adopt the supporting device in the future on their tractors when commercially available.Research highlights: Previous studies reported discomfort in operating the FROPS as the main cause of its improper use. A solution to improve FROPS reachability was developed and tested with users. Benefits were perceived by both novice users and expert users.

The comprehension of safety signs affixed to agricultural machinery is fundamental to warning users about the residual risks which cannot be eliminated with machinery design and the adoption of protections. This is particularly relevant for the migrant workforce, which may encounter some language barriers with written safety communication. The present study aimed to investigate the comprehension of safety signs affixed to agricultural machinery in a group of migrants from both European and non-European countries employed in Italian agriculture. Thirty-seven migrant farmworkers (12 Indians, 17 Pakistanis, and eight Romanians) were individually interviewed to test the comprehension of four safety signs referring to the main causes of fatal and non-fatal injuries caused by interactions with farm machinery. Romanians obtained the highest comprehension performance (68.8% of correct answers), followed by Indians (35.4%), with Pakistanis being last (32.4%). The nationality and the previous experience as a farmworker significantly affected the comprehension of safety signs. The results pointed out the importance of adequately training migrants on the meaning of safety signs. Beside this, the study suggests a redesign of the signs, considering some signs&rsquo, features to enhance pictorials&rsquo, cross-cultural comprehension.

The analysis of the postural attitude of workers during the interaction with workstation&rsquo, s elements and working environment is essential in the evaluation and prevention of biomechanical overload risk in workplaces. RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) and REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) are the two easiest methods for postural risk assessment in the workplace. Few studies investigated postural risk in forestry sector with regard to human&ndash, machine interaction, in particular manually fed wood-chippers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the postures assumed by an operator during the manual feeding of a wood-chipper, and to compare RULA and REBA, in order to identify the more effective and appropriate method for the assessment of the risk of biomechanical postural overload. The results pointed out several postural issues of the upper limbs, and showed that RULA is a more precautionary method to protect operator&rsquo, s health during the targeted tasks. Implications to improve the human&ndash, wood-chipper interaction are discussed.

Steep slopes are the main cause of rollover incidents in agriculture. Targeted safety signs have been developed to warn machinery operators against risky slopes. However, machinery user&rsquo, s manuals and road signs report information regarding slope steepness in two different ways, by using the tilt angle in degrees and the slope percentage, respectively. In this study, we investigated the comprehension of safety signs depicting critical slopes, either in degrees or as percent values in a group of Italian agricultural machinery operators while considering the possible influence of previous experience with agricultural machinery, previous incidents, and on-farm occupation. Eighteen tractor and self-propelled machinery operators were administered graphical representations of seven slope angles in a randomized order and then were asked to estimate the slope steepness as both a tilt angle and a slope percentage. The participants tended to overestimate slope steepness in degrees, whereas the opposite was true for percentages. Farmers who were previously involved in a machinery-related incident were more accurate in their estimates. The present results raise some considerations regarding the need to redesign safety communication and to promote targeted training interventions.

At the end of the 20th century the adoption of the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) was one of the disruptive technological advances in agricultural tractors. Several changes in the Human Machine Interface (HMI) of the tractor cab have been introduced to accommodate this technology. HMIs are known to raise issues about their ease of use; however, this topic has been under-investigated in the agricultural sector. The present study introduces a method to investigate the perceived ease of use of the HMI of agricultural tractors equipped with technological innovations. The HMI required to manage a CVT tractor was evaluated by sixteen tractor drivers (8 novices and 8 experts). During the first contact with the machine and after having performed two targeted tasks with the tractor, participants filled in a questionnaire about the ease of use of the controls and of the touch-screen display, and evaluated the general perception of ease of use, safety, quality and solidity of the machine. The trial pointed out some significant differences between novices and experts, thus confirming the validity of the proposed method. In particular, novice users showed some difficulties when interacting for the first time with the HMI of the CVT tractor working station, whereas experts did not report similar difficulties. Thus, expertise seems to play a role in determining the quality of the interaction with the HMI. Training interventions should be designed to help novices in increasing their expertise effectively, avoiding effort and errors and improving user’s comfort and system performance.

Pictorials affixed to agricultural machinery are important tools to warn the user about the risks that can arise from the intended use or any foreseeable misuse of the machine; however, in the U.S. there is no legal requirement regarding the adoption of safety pictorials on agricultural machinery. This study investigated comprehension of safety pictorials in a sample of U.S. agricultural machinery users. Two hundred and eight Pennsylvanian participants were asked to indicate the meaning of 12 frequent safety pictorials by choosing one among 4 alternative labels. The results showed that pictorials referring to the most common risks in agriculture were not necessarily the best comprehended images, and two out of five participants have never seen the pictorials included in the study. Years of experience with the machinery enhanced comprehension, whereas ‘part-time’ farming and occasional use of machinery were related to poorer comprehension. Implications for operators’ safety and solutions to improve pictorial noticeability and comprehension are discussed.

Objectives Migrant farmworkers report higher rates of work-related illnesses, injuries and fatalities compared with local workers. Language and cultural barriers represent a relevant source of risk, which can be reduced by means of targeted training interventions. However, very little evidence is available about the effectiveness of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) training programmes addressing migrant farmworkers. Study design We carried out a scoping review. Methods Currently available literature about the effectiveness of OSH training for migrant farmworkers—in terms of improvements in at least one of the following: safety knowledge, behaviours, attitudes and beliefs and health outcomes—was searched from four databases: PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science. The screening was performed independently by two authors, and any disagreement was resolved through discussion until consensus was achieved. Once the articles eligible for inclusion were selected, the objectives, design, sample and setting, interventions and findings of each study were recorded. No quality assessment tool for publications considered by this study has been used because a scoping review does not aim for critical appraisal. Results Twenty-nine publications met the inclusion criteria. Of these, nine cross-sectional studies discussed the effectiveness of training activities in terms of whether participating in any programme had or did not have a significant effect on the dependent variables, when training was considered along with other sociodemographic factors. In the majority of these studies, training appeared to have low or no effect on the dependent variables considered. Twenty mainly within-subject experimental studies addressed the effectiveness of specific training methods, reporting significant improvements especially for interventions based on a participatory approach. Conclusions Training could greatly contribute to an effective attainment of OSH information, but the present review shows that more evidence is needed to guide the future development of effective training activities.

Agricultural and earth-moving machinery operators are particularly exposed to whole body vibration (WBV), which has severe effects on health and affects comfort and performance. Few studies have investigated vibrational safety and comfort issues in telescopic handlers. These vehicles are widespread in many off-road applications--such as construction, agriculture and mining--used to handle loads and to lift persons and equipment. This study investigated the effects of an active hydro-pneumatic cabsuspension system fitted to a telehandler on a driver's vibration exposure along the x-, y- and z-axes, through both objective and subjective assessments. Sixteen healthy professional telehandler drivers took part in the study. Objective measurements were acquired at the operator's seat, and subjective ratings were taken while participants drove the telehandler with either a deactivated or activated suspension system at 12 kph on an ISO 5008 smooth track. The results showed that the activation of the cab-suspension system reduced the root-mean-square acceleration along the x- and z-axes. (p=.038 and p=.000, respectively). Moreover, the frequency analysis showed a reduction in the acceleration along the z-axis in the range of 2-25 Hz (p

Agriculture is among the most hazardous productive sectors, and farm machinery is a major source of injury. In the present study, a mediated model was used to test the role played by workers’ characteristics, work environment factors, and near misses in predicting agricultural machinery-related accidents in a sample of Italian users (n=290). Hours worked per week (via the mediation of an adverse work environment) showed a positive association and years of work experience (via the mediation of risk perception) showed a negative association with the probability of being involved in a near miss, which in turn showed a positive association with the probability of being involved in a machinery-related accident. Implications for tailored preventive interventions are discussed.

Introduction Exposure to whole body vibration (WBV) is one of the most important risks for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The objective of the study was to investigate whether an active cab suspension system fitted on a telehandler was effective in reducing WBV and in improving comfort. Method Sixteen male healthy professional operators drove a telehandler on a 100 m ISO 5008 smooth track at two different speeds (5 and 12 kph) with activated and deactivated cab suspension system. Adopting an ergonomic approach, different aspects of the human-machine interaction were analyzed: 1) vibration transmissibility, 2) subjective ratings of general comfort and local body discomfort, and 3) anthropometric characteristics of the users. Results A series of ANCOVAs showed that the suspension system was effective in reducing WBV at both speeds but did not affect the perception of comfort by the operators. Moreover, individuals with higher Body Mass Index (BMI) experienced more comfort. Some neck/shoulder and lumbar complaints and perceived hard jolts seemed to remain even when the system was activated. No correlations were found between objective and subjective measures. Practical applications Results suggest that the operators, given their wide range of physical variability, may need more adjustable or customizable WBV reduction systems.