The objective of this research was to evaluate the physical effort demanded and the posture of the workers in forest nursery activities and to propose an ergonomic reorganization to improve the security and health levels of workers. The study was carried out with workers of a forestry company located in Parana State, Brazil. The physical effort demanded was evaluation with in a survery of the workers cardiac frequency in different stages of the work using a Polar monitor from Finlandia and work classified in categories as proposed by Apud (1997). To evaluation posture the workers were filmed during the performance of his activities and the data submitted to the software WinOwas of analysis of postures. The results indicated that the work stages considered of higher physical exigency were the substrate preparation and transport of seedlings in polythene bags to vegetation home with cardiac frequency of 120 and 115 bpm and cardiovascular load of 42% and 37%, respectively, with the activities classified as average heavy. The critical posture to workers was at removal substrate in concrete-mixer, due an overload of lumbar column. The seedling production activity showed the necessity of the correction at posture of the workers because in 97% of the total time they stand with the lumbar column curved. It is possible to conclude that the forestry company should take preventive measures to avoid backaches, using educational strategies or changing the operational system.
Physical work demand; posture; production of seedlings; ergonomics