Manual handling issues

Follow these five tips and action steps to reduce risk in your workplace. Ergonomic risk factors are problems with the work environment that cause unnecessary physical fatigue. The three primary ergonomic risk factors are:. This process is the foundation for preventing back injuries for manual material handling tasks.

An ergonomically designed work environment reduces fatigue and discomfort for workers. This, in turn, limits the risk of an injury occurring. Next action: Learn how to identify ergonomic risk factors by conducting objective ergonomics assessments.

Click here to download step-by-step guides to our recommended ergonomic assessments tools. Manual material handling tasks require workplace athletes to be ready for their workday. A detailed process, including requirements for identifying hazardous manual handling and implementing risk controls, is available from WorkSafe Victoria.

The next step is to assess which factors are contributing to the risk of injury. Typical risk factors that can increase the risk of injury include:. After identifying workplace hazards you can do several things to control the risk of manual handling injuries. These tips can help reduce injury at home as well as at work. Safety suggestions include:. The back is particularly vulnerable to manual handling injuries.

Safety suggestions include controlling risk factors in the workplace, in addition to personal controls:. Your workplace occupational health and safety coordinator can give you advice about managing the risks associated with manual handling.

Organisations such as WorkSafe Victoria or unions can offer information and advice on modifying the workplace or work practices to reduce the risk of manual handling injuries. This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by:. When returning to a flood-affected area, remember that wild animals, including rats, mice, snakes or spiders, may be trapped in your home, shed or garden. When returning to your home after a flood, take precautions to reduce the possibility of injury, illness or disease.

Children should always be closely supervised near animals and taught how to behave safely around pets. When asbestos fibres become airborne, people working with asbestos may inhale particles which remain in their lungs.

Asbestos fibres breathed into the lungs can cause a range of health problems including lung cancer and mesothelioma. Content on this website is provided for information purposes only. It is the employer's responsibility to provide you with safe work procedures, and with instruction, training and supervision for manual handling tasks.

Slippery and uneven floors in the workplace are hazardous and can result in serious accidents. For example, kitchen workers have been burnt when they have accidentally pulled pots of hot liquid onto themselves when a slip has caused them to fall. Floors should be cleaned regularly so that oil, fat and other spills do not create a slippery surface.

Employers must make sure that floors are even, slip-resistant and free from any obstruction that could cause an employee to slip, trip or fall. Although these boxes may be easier to handle at a lighter weight, the increase that this could cause in the number of boxes to be carried could have a bad effect.

For these reasons it is a better idea to try and avoid the need for these boxes to be manually handled. All these problems should be identified and different ideas for changes; studied and agreed upon. If possible risks cannot be completely prevented, effective methods of reducing the need for manual handling should be discussed and carefully decided on, e. Forming lighter boxes to lift, could help to reduce the chance of injury, but some changes could be made to completely stop the need for manual handling:.

It is important to include everyone involved in changes believed to be successful, documenting the reasons that they should be made. Do other workers believe that there are more practical methods of dealing with a certain problem and do they have their own ideas of a more effective approach?

Although changes such as the use of a tail-lift are likely to reduce the risk of manual handling accidents, it is still important that this new system of work is assessed again from beginning until end, for example:. Any hazards should again be discussed, such as a lack of space to move the machine through which must be cleared out, confirming that anyone using the tail-lift is already skilled in this area. To prevent accidents, the most important principles to prevent injury in this case if manual handling is necessary, are:.

Reviewing the changes that have been made, and discovering to what extent they have prevented or reduced the risk of certain accidents can display the success of their implementation, e. Any other serious changes which appear over time should be discussed and new requirements should be implemented immediately.