MANUAL HANDLING

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Manual Handling means any activity requiring the use of force exerted by a person to lift, lower, push, pull, carry or otherwise move, hold or restrain a person, animal or thing.

Manual Handling also includes any activity involving repetitive and/or forceful movements (e.g. keying data into a computer; using a screwdriver) and any activity where the person must maintain constrained or awkward postures

Working at arms length from the body is hazardousUsing hand tools in awkward posture is hazardous

Bending into storages on the ground is bad for your backExerting high force above shoulder height increases the risk of injury

Bending and lifting is hazardous for your backPushing objects in awkward posture is bad for your back

Examples Of Manual Handling Activities Include:

Manual Handling injuries are the single biggest group of injuries.

More workers receive injuries from Manual Handling than any other category of injury.

Manual Handling injuries affect workers of any age.

Young men, 18-25yrs, most common injury is from lifting or being struck by moving objects.

Manual Handling Injury Stats.Source: Workers CompensationStatistical Reports: 1998/99 2001/02, 1999/00 2002/03In the period March 2006 to April 2007 there were a total of 105 workplace injuries at Ausdrill out of theses 75 were classed as Manual Handling or 71.5%State Based Stats

Frequency (no. of lost time injuries per million hours worked)Duration(average no. of days lost)Males5.681.0 daysFemales4.793.8 days

Source: Workers' Compensation Statistical Report 1998/9 - 2001/02

Weight LimitsThere is no specified weight limit for an individual lift.It is up to the individual to assess the weight and decide whether it is safe to lift

Manual Handling Injuries May Result From:gradual wear and tear caused by frequent or prolonged periods of Manual Handling activity (e.g. a storeperson continually handling stock between deliveries);

sudden damage caused by intense or strenuous Manual Handling or awkward lifts (e.g. A labourer lifting a compactor or a mechanic/engineer lifting heavy metal to be machined

direct trauma caused by unexpected events (e.g. a storeperson walking on uneven ground carrying a large heavy carton, trips and falls, poor housekeeping).

Experience has shown most Manual Handling injuries are associated with day to day tasks.

Very often there is no accident (sudden or unexpected event) associated with the injury.

The person may not feel pain until several hours after the injury occurs.

Injuries from Manual HandlingConditions known as:RSI repetitive strain disorder

OOS occupational overuse syndromeSoft tissue damage injuries, strains & sprains,

MSD muscular-skeletal-disorder. Damage to soft or bony material. See thru view of lumber back pain

Manual Handling Injuries Occur In Many Areas Of The Body

Common Injury Site Is The SpinePicture showing spine and different areasThe most common site of injury in the spine is the lower back between L4/5 and L5/S1.

Spinal Section & DiscPicture showing intervertebral disc.Intervertebral discs shown in detail

Leverage and Back Injury10 kg100 kgLeverage can increase the weight on your lumbar by a factor of 10

Risk Factors In Manual HandlingA number of factors can increase the risk of injury, including:size, shape and weight of objects (if carried or held) and forces required (if pushed, pulled or restrained);sudden unexpected or jarring movement;awkward movements, such as twisting, bending, over-reaching, especially if combined with load handling;static postures, like holding the body or part of the body in a fixed position for a long time; andpersonal factors, such as age, physical dimensions and any disabilities the person may have.

This activity is a Manual Handling hazard.

The weight alone is sufficient to cause injury.

Disc compression due to excess weight

Risk Factors In Manual HandlingThese risk factors are influenced by:how long and how often the tasks are performed (eg. repetitive movement);

the way work is organised, such as one employee performing all manual handling tasks instead of tasks being shared by several employees;

design and layout of work environment; and

the degree of familiarity with the task and associated training.

This activity may be a Manual Handling hazard. Additional information is required regarding task duration, how far the load is carried etc.

Repetitive or Sustained ForceRepetitive means done more than twice in a minute for more than 30 minutes in a given shift.

Sustained force means done for more than 30 secs at a time.

So any Manual Handling that fits into these descriptions is considered hazardous.

Repetitive or Sustained Awkward PostureRepetitive or Sustained MovementBending or Twisting the back forwards or sideways more than 20 degreesBending the back more than 5 degrees backwards

Sideways bending compressing discs

Repetitive or Sustained Awkward PostureRepetitive or Sustained MovementBending or Twisting the neck forwards or sideways more than 20 degrees

Bending neck backwards greater than 5 degreesTwisting of the spine may cause soft tissue damage

Repetitive or Sustained Awkward PostureRepetitive or Sustained MovementWorking with one or both hands above head height.

Reaching forwards or sideways more than 30cm from the body

Uneven disc load due to leaning

Repetitive or Sustained Awkward PostureRepetitive or Sustained MovementSquatting, kneeling, crawling, lying, semi-lying or jumping.Standing on one leg etcExcessive bending of the wrist

Manual Handling injuries occur in many areas of the body, not just the spine.E.g. wrist strain & carpal tunnel syndrome, knee injury etc

Disc DamageDisc Prolapse

MythbusterBack belts are effective in reducing back injuries .Back belts, also known as lumbar or weight lifters' belts, or back support devices, are designed to be worn by people performing some form of manual handling, particularly lifting weights.

Back belts don't reduce the forces on the spine

Back belts don't reduce the strain on muscles, tendons and ligaments

Back belts do nothing to reduce fatigue or to increase the ability to lift

Back belts can increase blood pressure and breathing rate

Back belts don't reduce the chance of injury or reduce back painBUSTED

MythbusterJob rotation does eliminate Manual Handling hazards 1. Ineffective job rotation may increase worker exposure to the risk of developing a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). 2. Job rotation doesn't eliminate the risk of MSD from Manual Handling.

BUSTED

PREVENTING MANUALHANDLING INJURIESYour employer has a legal responsibility to provide a safe and healthy workplace for all employees.The national standard for Manual Handling requires that all tasks in your workplace which involve Manual Handling are identified and that the risk or likelihood of injury is assessed. Where there is a risk of injury, suitable "control measures" must be introduced..

Control Measures Need To Be Suitable and Practicalredesigning the task or load that needs to be moved; providing mechanical handling devices such as hoists or trolleys; safe work procedures such as team lifting; orspecific training for particular handling tasks.

Robot in car factory fitting wheel components

Individuals At Work

Each employee has a duty of care which states they have to not put themselves or others in the workplace at risk.

Individuals should take note of hazardous manual handling tasks and take steps to reduce the risk to themselves/workmates.

As An Employee,

if you are aware of anything in your workplace which could be a Manual Handling risk, you should discuss it with your manager or supervisor and try to find the best way of eliminating or reducing it.

Also talk to your health and safety representative or notify your health and safety committee if your workplace has one.

Safe lifting zone

The area of lowest risk when carrying out a lift is close to the body above the knees and below the shoulders.

Hierarchy of Control

Ask The Question?

Is the Manual Handling activity necessary?

If the answer is no then do not do it

If the answer is yes then more questions need to be answered.

Ask The Question?

Can the work be changed to eliminate, reduce or control the risk of injury?Ways you can achieve this-modifying workplace layout and equipment;redesigning work patterns;modifying the load;warming up and stretching prior to manual handling.

Modifying Workplace Layout And Equipment

Raise work level by use ofself-adjusting platformUse levers to reduce the force requiredGantry crane

Modifying The Load

Reduce the risk by lightening the load

Controlling The Work EnvironmentWorker in inadequate space. The pellet should be moved.Good work layout with sufficient space

Lift S.M.A.R.T.

End of Presentation

Any Questions

Intro self (trainer) Outline evacuation procedure, toilets, tea & coffee, breaks, mobilesGain audience level WHO has undertaken HSEC training latelyYOUR OPPORTUNITY TO participate in the processIce breaker: Ask participants what is one thing they expect to get from the session and to intro themselves (name, role). Trainer to write expectations in summary on the whiteboard/butchers paper. REFER to summary at the end of the training session.NAME TAGS___________________________________________________________Today we are looking specifically at manual handling.

The reason we are doing this is because manual handling has been identified as the biggest group of injuries in our workplace. We have had a number of injuries relating to this area recently.

Ausdrill values its employees and wants to stop the occurrence of manual handling injuries in the workplace. We target a zero occurrence in this area, is it acceptable to say that we accept even one injury no! So we are trying to work towards this target. Due to the nature of the work performed in the Ausdrill group we may never reach this but this is what we would like to achieve.This can only be achieved thru a concerted effort by all employees. Be aware and be safe.

Definition ___________________________________________Manual handling does not just relate to lifting heavy things, it also includesrepetitive tasks that can cause strain on any part of the body i.e. using the same tool to perform the same task many times in a shift, working in awkward posture i.e. bending over to perform a job that is not easy to reach i.e. servicing an engineX-ray vision of skeleton on the move_____________________________________________________The body has many moving parts and manual handling injuries can occur to many of the body parts.Injuries in this group can occur to the skeleton as well as to soft tissue.

This individual will probably suffer from what is knonwn as strutters disposition. Possibly injury to the neck from excessive head movement.Examples of poor lifting technique___________________________________________Poor work area layout is contributing to the poor manual handlingExamples of poor lifting techniqueExamples of poor lifting techniqueManual Handling tasks___________________________________________Manaul handling can involve the use tools as well as hands on lifting, carrying, pushing, holding, General overview of injury outcomes as sourced from WorkSafe WA. 1. Put the question as to why- more workers receive injuries from manual handling- to the trainees??human involvement in doing work taskslack of awareness of potential hazardous situations lack of suitable safe work procedures that lower the exposure to this type of occurrence2. Why do young men receive so many injuries from lifting?lack of knowledge and lack of experience in the workplacethink they are indestructibledo not want to look as they do not know the job and so do not ask how to do it safely._______________________________________Manual handling injuries adversely affect more workers than any other type of injury.We are providing this training to you to incresae your level of awareness to try to minimise your exposure to this type of injury.Only by looking at the tasks you have to do and planning a safe way of doing those tasks can you reduce the likelihood of receiving a manual handling injury.Employees have a role to play in the creation of safe work procedures and if you think there is a safer way of doing a manual handling task then you should talk to your supervisor about it.

Scope and cost of manual handling injuries.Sourced form WorkSafe WAMen receive more of this type of injury than do our female workers In 2000/01, manual handling injuries accounted for nearly 31% of the total number of injuries to WAs workers. The highest numbers of manual handling injuries were reported in the manufacturing industry (1425), and health and community services (1115).Although lost-time manual handling injuries have fallen over the last 4 years, manual handling is still the most frequent mechanism of injury for both men and women workers in WA, and the injuries still result in considerable time lost from work. The table summarises the frequency rates (measured as number of lost time injuries per million hours worked) and the average number of days lost from such injuries.

Weight limit to be applied in the workplace for an individual to lift without assistance1st click to reveal weightlifter2nd click to reveal old guy doing curls____________________________________________________Ausdrill, in line with the Code of Practice do not set a specific weight that is considered safe for an individual to lift on their own without the use of assistance, i.e. use of a bag trolley, getting someone else to assist,

It is up to the individual to asses the lift and see if it is safe for them to peform.

Injury causation

____________________________________________________Have the trainees ever experienced any of these type of injuries?Injury causation and symptoms__________________________________________Injuries of this type may show immediate symptom but this is not always the case. Quite often it is after the body has cooled down that the person starts to notice the injury.If the type of injury is an overuse injury then the patient may only notice this after a period of time has passed and inflammation has set in.

Injury types within the group of manual handling.

Ask the trainees if they can state any injuries that may fall into these areas.RSI carpal tunnel syndrome, OOS wear and tear injuriesMSD broken bones, dilocations, muscle tears, disc bulge/hernia,

Manual handling injury sites within the body.______________________________________________Manual handling injuries do not occur just to the back As shown in the diagram they occur in many sites including those shown and more.It is quite often that people think manualhandling injuries occur to the spine from lifting but this is not always the case.In Ausdrill we hacve had injuries involving the back, ankle, wrist, knees, shoulders, and moreDiagramatic reprsentation of the spine1st click to high light arrow pointing to area of L4/5 & L5/S1______________________________________________________The vertebral column or spine is made up of a series of bones called vertebrae. This diagram shows the various sections of the spine.Click to highlight arrowThe area of high occurrence is pointed out by the arrow.An injury to the spine in this area will result in significant pain and if serious in nature the effects will be ongoing and result in serious negative health consequences to the sufferer.Diagramatic depiction of Vertebral discs____________________________________________________Adjacent vertebral bodies are attached to each other by an intervertebral disc. The disc is made up of a central mass of pulpy tissue called the nucleus pulposus and a tough outer covering of fibro-cartilage called the annulous fibrosis. The layers of the annulus are thinner at the back, making this area potentially more prone to damage.

Often damage to the spine involves damage to the intervertabral discs This damage can reslut in the sufferer having referred pain or pain in areas other thatn the site of the injury. Typically an injury to the disc at this level of the spine results in pain at the site as well as pain in the legs.

Causative factors in Manual handling injuries.

____________________________________________________Ask trainees for examples of activities that they perform in the course of their work involving these risk factors.Work thru any of the factors that they do not cover using examples to reiforce the learning.Lifting and Carrying Hazard.1st click to show pic of compressed disc__________________________________________________This load would be considered to be too heavy for an individual to lift and/or carry. There is a limit to individual abilities and this is well above the limit that would be expected for an individual to lift/carry.This type of activity could result in injury to the participant.Click to show compressed discTask risk factors__________________________________________________________Work thru the points on the slide Points 1 & 2 relating to the Risk matrix with regard to exposure.Points 3 & 4 relating to the Risk matrix with regard to llikelihood

Re. pt. 4. familiarity with the task may not reduce the chance of injury, it may in fact increase the chance of injuryif the participant is familiar with a poor work procedure or simply thru complacency the individual may not take notice of a developing hazard and discount the chance of something will go wrong, so expose themselves to injury.Manual handling risk factor repetitionAsk trainees if they consider this to be a risky behaviour1st click to show answer as to why this may be a hazard_____________________________________________The nature of the task has many parts and requires more investigation into all aspects to understand it completely.This load is well within most individuals capacity. Howeverit could present a hazard if: this task had to be done repeatedly, over and over for many days at a time, there were trip hazards in the path of the individual, the individual has a lowered capacity to lift and carry due to injuryDefinition as per Code of Practise for Mnaual Handling for:Repetitive manual handlingSustained force_____________________________________________A repititous task is one that is done more than twice in a minute for more than 30 minutes in a given shift.A typical example is typing or counting small machinery parts, say- nuts/bolts, by moving them from one box to another.

Sustained force could involve holding onto a lever or object while you get assistance with a difficlut task. E.g. holding a axle in place while you wait for another to ensure it is an alignment, positioning a large tyre to fit to vehicle.Definition as per Code of Practise for Mnaual Handling for:__________________________________________________________Typical tasks such as leaning over an engine bay

Picture. Tensions pull apart the structures being loaded. In the spine it is the ligaments that are usually under tension, causing lengthening and narrowing. Overstretching of the ligaments may result in tears to parts of or all of a ligament. Low back pain is usually experienced with these types of sprain injuries.

Definition as per Code of Practise for Mnaual Handling for:

Picture. Twisting movements of the spine cause soft tissue strain through the generation of large muscle forcesand loads on the intervertebral discs. These types of movements cause the soft tissues to be exposed to acombination of compression, shear and tension forces.

Definition as per Code of Practise for Mnaual Handling for:__________________________________________________________Loads above head height or at distance from the torso increase the chance of damage to the back by increasing the leverage and therefore theload on the back is increased putting greater strain on the structure and greater pressure on the discs.Combine this with an uneven load and the pressure on certain areas of the disc is increased resulting in increased risk of injury.Definition as per Code of Practise for Mnaual Handling for:Potential injury to areas of the body other than the spine________________________________________________________________The risk of injury to parts of the body other than the back is increased by these behaviours.

Diagramatic depiction of intervertebral disc damage__________________________________________________Disc prolapse or rupturing of the outer disc structure, allowing some of t he contents to escape and protrude, may occur when the muscles and the ligaments of the spine are strained beyond their limits causing uneven compression of the disc.This type of damage can occur as a result of poor manual handling techniques.

Info from Worksafe Victoria1st click spin bustedSome research has found that in fact the highest compressive and shearing forces in the spine occur when wearing a belt due to the increased abdominal pressure.There is a substantial body of evidence in the literature that demonstrates the 'lack of effect' of back belts in reducing the degree of strain upon associated muscles, tendons and ligaments, or the risk of musculoskeletal injuries to the back, associated with manual handling tasks. Wearing a back belt has been found to have no effect on either muscle fatigue or maximum weight able to be lifted. Increased blood pressure and rate of respiration can increase the risks of heart attacks in susceptible people. A 1994 NIOSH study concluded there was no evidence that back belts actually reduce the risk of worker injuries. Info from Worksafe Victoria 1st click spin busted

This can happen when other jobs in the rotation have the same risk factors. For example, if repetitive reaching above shoulder height is an aspect of all the jobs in a rotation, then the worker is still exposed to the same risk factor It can reduce exposure time to risk but it doesn't address the source of the risk and it is often used ineffectively.

Employer duty of care________________________________________The employer has a duty of care to all employees in the workplace and so should put in place measures that eliminate or minimise the likelihood of injury in the work environment.Ask trainees to give examples of the controls that exist in their areas of work.Control types that could be introduced______________________________________________________Pnt.1. 4 . These measures could be implemented by management but they all require the staff to be involved in some regard to make them work. redesigning the load ensures better safety, staff have to follow the task as it has been redesigned the staff have to know how to use the mechanical devices to make the job safer. The staff have to follow the safe work procedure All the training in the world can not make you do a job more safely you have to actually follow that training to make a differenceThere is a situation which will definitely reduce the incidence of manual handling injury Following slide showing computerised robot fitting wheel components in car factorySlide showing computerised robot fitting wheel components in car factory____________________________________________________________________Getting the people out of the workplace is the only measure that will definitely eliminate manual handling injuriesOf course, some-one has to fit service and program this machine and so there is an element of manual handling remaining.Employee duty of care___________________________________________________Employees have a duty of care to not put themselves or others in the workplace at risk injury. Employees should ensure that what they are about to or are doing does meet their duty of careEmployee duty of care expanded_________________________________________________Diagramatic depiction of safe lifting zone__________________________________________________________The further the object you are lifting is away from the bodyThe further the object you are lifting is blow the kneesThe more the object you are lifting is above the shoulder the greater the chance of injuryHeirarchy of control as it applies to manual handling tasksEmployees can reduce the incidence of manual handling injuries by employing the measures mentioned. Ausdrill doesExamples of modifying the work layout and equipmentExamples of modifying the loadExamples of controllling the work environment