Ergonomic Evaluation of Base Transceiver Station Maintenance Personnel in Nigeria

• W. A. Raheem

  Department of Systems Engineering, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

• A. O. Ajayeoba

  Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria

• K. A. Adebiyi

  Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria

• O. R. Oyetunji

  Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria

• O. A. Ayeyemi

  Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Operational activities of Base Transceiver Station (BTS)/ Tower require risk assessment due to the high level of occupational health hazards involved. Data were gathered via the use of questionnaire administration, oral interview and onsite observation. Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) was used to analyze the awkward posture of the respondents and its effects and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the difference in the final REBA score. The independent variables were, Generator Maintenance Personnel (GMP), Fiber Personnel (FP) and Transmission Personnel (TP). A total sample size of 300 BTS workers were assessed out of which 29.7%, 33.7% and 36.7 % of the workers were FP, TP and GMP, respectively. Workers experienced various levels of physical, biological and chemical hazards About 29.3% (mostly FB) worked at a very high risk level, 62.2% of the workers (mostly GMP) worked at high risk level and the remaining percentage worked at medium risk level. Also, there were significant differences in the magnitude of risk among FP, TP and GMP with FP having the highest. It was revealed that there were several subtle workplace hazards that could cause adverse health problems to the employees.

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