Firing of a Cannon: Psychophysical Evaluation of Ergonomic Hazards
Musculoskeletal-related occupational illnesses and injuries comprise a majority of military medical encounters resulting in decreased combat readiness and degraded human performance. An artillery company performing a live fire exercise was observed for tw
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Abstract Musculoskeletal-related occupational illnesses and injuries comprise a majority of military medical encounters resulting in decreased combat readiness and degraded human performance. An artillery company performing a live fire exercise was observed for two days along with the collection of perceived exertion, fatigue and pain data. Twenty-five U.S. Marines were involved in the study. Sixteen (64 %) reported becoming injured after returning from combat during a “Call for Fire” exercise and four (16 %) were on limited duty at the time of the study. Their perceptions of exertion, fatigue, and pain increased over the course of both days. In addition, human error also increased over the course of the day and moral decreased as well. The study uncovered that the exposure profile during the support of the “Call for Fire” exercise is leading to degradations in physical performance and increased exposure to physical work place risk factors resulting in various soft tissue injuries.
Keywords Human factors Human-Systems integration Psychophysical Borg scale Crew fatigue M198 155-mm howitzer Ergonomic Health hazards Back injury Exertion Military Manual material handling
1 Introduction Artillery is a class of large military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry’s small arms. Modern artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the largest share of an army’s total ground based firepower. Heavy artillery is arguably the most lethal form of T. Stack (&) D. Autenrieth Safety, Health, and Industrial Hygiene Department, Montana Tech of the University of MT, 1300 West Park Street, Butte, MT 59701, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. Ostrom University of Idaho, 1776 Science Center Drive, Idaho Falls, ID 83402, USA © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 R. Goonetilleke and W. Karwowski (eds.), Advances in Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 489, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41694-6_57
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land-based armament currently employed and includes the Howitizer. The M198 Howitizer is a medium-sized, towed 155 mm artillery piece, developed for service with the United States Army and Marine Corps. The crew size for the M198 Howitizer is optimal at nine [1]. Gunner in the armed forces is the term for the personnel with the primary function of using artillery. The gunners’ proximity to and participation in direct combat against attacks by aircraft and land forces make it a notoriously dangerous position while in combat. There are multiple examples of weapons systems employed by military forces with minimal consideration to their impact on the Soldier because the development was during a time when occupational health was not a major concern or the impacts of exposure was not well understood. The Textbook of Military Medicine describes multiple examples of the lack of information available during equipment development that exposed personnel to unnecessary health risks.
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