Research on the size and shape of the North Sea offshore workforce has revealed that some UK workers are larger than average American males and take up more space than earlier data had indicated.
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L to R: PhD student PJ Barron, Research Fellow Clinton Njoku, Dr. Arthur Stewart.Charting their body dimensions has also cast valuable light on their ability to escape through a helicopter window.
Bigger individuals are less likely to be able to do so than smaller individuals, but the study has shown that size isn’t everything.
The new findings from a joint research project into the size and shape of North Sea offshore workers by Robert Gordon University (RGU) and Oil and Gas UK in Aberdeen have been published in an academic journal following the completion of their high-tech study in 2015.
Using portable 3D scanning technology, the team measured 588 male offshore workers and extracted a total of 26 measures, including shoulder width, chest girth, neck girth, and a series of volumetric measurements of the arm, leg and torso.
Measuring workers in different standing and sitting postures and in form-fitting shorts as well as full survival suits, the research is the most comprehensive study ever carried out to date.
The measurement data – which will be available under licence from Oil & Gas UK – have informed the team’s focus on offshore worker’s body dimensions and their ability to pass in a confined space, and through a window frame representing the smallest acceptable exit window size on a helicopter.
Dr. Arthur Stewart from RGU’s Faculty of Health and Social Care and Knowledge Transfer Partner associate Robert Ledingham worked with senior business analyst Moira Lamb and medical advisor Dr. Graham Furnace from Oil & Gas UK during the two-year study.
It was prompted by industry recognition that existing size information on offshore workers was out-of-date, and although the workforce was heavier, how that had impacted on their shape and space requirements was unknown. ■