The objective of this work was to evaluate the physical work demanded in operations of seedling production in an ornamental nursery that supply gardens in the Federal District, Brazil, and to classify the activities developed according to its physical effort demand proposing an ergonomic reorganization to improve the security levels, health, well-being and satisfaction of workers. Mean cardiac frequencies were calculated for the 5 analyzed stages (polythene bag filling, cart stacking, transport of seedlings in polythene bags to nursery beds, planting of seedlings into bags and shipping). The mean cardiac frequency at the different stages were; 97.96 bpm for polythene bag filling, 111.7 bpm for cart stacking, 126.26 bpm for transport of seedlings in polythene bags to nursery beds, 90.75 bpm for planting of seedlings into polythene bags, and 115.01 bpm for the shipping. Transport of seedlings in polythene bags to nursery beds exceeded the maximum cardiac load, which is 40%, being necessary therefore a rest of 12.8 minutes during the working hours. The heaviest physical effort in the work was found for the operation transport of seedlings in polythene bags to nursery beds (heavy physical load), followed by cart stacking and shipping (both moderately heavy). The operations polythene bag filling and planting of seedlings into bags were classified as light physical effort.
Forest ergonomics; planting; silviculture
