The white stuff many Americans can count on shortly after Thanksgiving is beautiful to look at and fun to romp in, but it can be a pain. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that snow removal accounts for some 72,000 visits to medical emergency rooms across the United States each year. Heart attacks and strokes, all kinds of musculoskeletal suffering and snow blower injuries feed this dramatic statistic. Wheeled shovels, led by an innovative newcomer on the market, could trim the figures.

Non-motorized, they fill a niche between snow blowing machines and traditional snow shovels. Small wheels under the shovel support the load of snow, reducing the burden on the heart, muscles and joints. The makers of these and other wheeled shovels promote their products as easy on the body and there is plenty of reason to believe them: wheels have been found useful since ancient times for reducing the amount of exertion required to move a load from one point to another.

The Wovel, the newcomer on the market, makes bigger use of the concept. The shovel is mounted in front of a spoked wheel that is the size of a bicycle wheel, and two long handles extend behind it. The device looks a little like a manual plow and works like a seesaw: pushing down on the handle at one end raises the blade at the other and sends the scooped snow flying. The Wovel won the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award for the “best new product” at the 2005 National Hardware Show, as well as accolades at the 2006 International Hardware Show in Germany. And it’s in the news again as one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions 2006.

An independent study commissioned by the University of Massachusetts looked at how the Wovel works. The results, reported in Gizmag, Corporate Connecticut, The Chief Engineer and many other technology and business magazines, endorse the maker’s claim that the unique design allows the user to multiply mechanical force and throw snow into piles over four feet high with ease.

“The biomechanical model shows a huge reduction, by approximately 85 percent, of risk of injury of the lower back with the Wovel,” says Bryan Buchholz, Ph.D., Professor and Director of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Massachusetts. “Even when moving heavy loads the Wovel virtually eliminates lower back stress, making it comparable to simply walking.” Dr. Buchholz’ says the research indicates that “the greatly improved efficiency of the Wovel can also reduce overall body exertion by as much as 80 percent versus shoveling.”

The big test for the Wovel and its wheeled cousins is whether they trim the lines of patients in emergency rooms.

Sources: Wovel; Time; Gizmag; Corporate Connecticut; The Chief Engineer