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Honoring Dr. Vincent Matthew Ciriello special issue guest editorial.

Maikala RV; Dempsey PG; Maynard WS

Int J Ind Ergon 2014 Mar; 44(2):197-198

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2014.01.010

20044209

This special issue is in honor of the career contributions of Dr. Vincent M. Ciriello, recently retired from the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety. Dr. Vincent Ciriello graduated with a Bachelors in Biology, Masters in Health Dynamics, and Doctorate in Applied Anatomy and Physiology, all degrees from Boston University, Boston, USA. Dr. Ciriello conducted research investigations in psychophysics and low-back and upper extremity musculoskeletal health and disorders for 44 years. Dr. Ciriello's research resulted in the internationally recognized "psychophysical tables" (the "Snook and Ciriello Tables", 1991) and advanced our understanding of the acute responses of industrial populations, with and without low-back pain, to materials handling and other physical stimuli. The psychophysical findings were foundational to the 1981 and 1991 NIOSH Lifting Equations as well as the ISO11228, Manual Materials Handling part 2-Pushing and Pulling standard. Both tools are used globally to address the significant burden of materials handling injuries in occupational settings. The heart of Dr. Ciriello's contributions was the improvement of the ergonomics and safety of workplaces around the world. The psychophysical tables gave practitioners the scientific evidence base to assess workplace manual materials handling risk with the goal of implementing ergonomics design interventions that improve workplace safety and productivity. The title of the journal articles published by Snook in 1978 and Snook and Ciriello in 1991 says it all: "The Design of Manual Handling Tasks". What many might not know is that Drs. Snook and Ciriello developed a set of proprietary tables used internally by Liberty Mutual Loss Prevention field consultants for many years based on the same research as published in the articles. The output of these tables were population percentages for males and females able to perform the task, rather than the maximum acceptable weights and forces. In 1978, a document titled "Manual Materials Handling Task Evaluation Ergonomic Tables" was released within Liberty Mutual's loss prevention department and, in 1991, the revised research led to a revised tool called "Manual Materials Handling: Ergonomic Tables". This document was later developed into an internal computer application called CompuTask. These tables are now openly available as an on-line calculator on the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety website as the "Liberty Mutual Tables". This calculator is but one of many manual materials handling calculators developed by practitioners around the world based on the work of Snook and Ciriello. It is impossible to know how many jobs are now safer because of their work, but it is significant. We are very grateful the contributions of Drs. Snook and Ciriello.

Biological-factors; Biological-function; Ergonomics; Manual-lifting; Musculoskeletal-system-disorders; Back-injuries; Extremities; Physiology; Anatomy; Psychophysiology; Manual-materials-handling; Materials-handling; Safety-research

Rammohan V. Maikala, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, 71 Frankland Road, Hopkinton, MA 01748

20140301

Other

Rammohan.maikala@libertymutual.com

2014

M052014

2

0169-8141

OMSHR

International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

MA; PA