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Ind Health. 2013;51(3):364-70. Epub 2013 Apr 5. Health risk evaluation of whole-body vibration by ISO 2631-5 and ISO 2631-1 for operators of agricultural tractors and recreational vehicles.  Park MS, Fukuda T, Kim TG, Maeda S. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan.

This paper presents experimental research evaluation of the vibration exposure for the health risk prediction during vehicle operation. The vibration measurements were carried out on a recreational vehicle and two types of agricultural tractors.

The vibration levels were measured for different surfaces and vehicle speed conditions.

Based on the analysis of the results in the small agricultural tractor operated in the workplace (frameworks), Sed exceeded 0.80 MPa by ISO2631-5:2004, and Av exceeded 0.89 m/s(2) by ISO2631-1:1997. That means that operators driving small agricultural tractors more than 8 h a day have a high probability of adverse health effects.

However, the exposure value for the recreational vehicle had Sed < 0.5 MPa by ISO2631-5:2004 and Av < 0.5 m/s(2) by ISO2631-1:1997 on highways and local roads. That means Recreational Vehicle operators driving more than 8 h a day, have a low probability of adverse health effects. Also, for the recreational vehicle, vibration was taken at different speeds (40-60 km/h, 80 km/h, 100-120 km/h). However, the speed change did not appear to affect the vibration dose variation while driving a vehicle on the highway and road.

Finally, the health effect index of ISO2631-5:2004 are almost the same as assessment of health effect by ISO2631-1:1997.

PMID: 23558167