WHO DOES IT APPLY TO?

Absolutely everybody, who during the working day may be expected/required to carry out any form of manual handling activity

WHY DO WE ASSESS?

The HSE have very extensive guidelines on the risks from manual handling, around 60% of work related injuries are caused by manual handling incidents, millions of pounds a year is lost to industry from injuries caused by incorrect manual handling, and thousands of people are partially handicapped by back injuries that could have been prevented.

WHAT SHOULD BE ASSESSED?

Every task that involves lifting, carrying or pushing and pulling needs to be assessed.

PREPARING FOR AN ASSESSMENT

Weights and carry distances for items should be established to provide information for carrying out an assessment. Any restrictions on staff due to medical reasons need to be discovered, this can range from previous histories of back complaints to pregnancy. Additionally accident record books should be analysed to identify tasks that have produced manual handling injuries

CARRYING OUT ASSESSMENTS

Ideally the assessment should be carried out using the MAC (Manual Handling Assessment Checklist) sheets devised by the HSE, this quantifies assessments and takes into account all aspects of lifting and carrying operations both for single persons and team lifts/carries (Note that the HSE discourages team lifts/carries deem them to be high risk automatically). All tasks are reviewed for methods of risk reduction - automations, additional equipment, procedure changes etc.

USING THE RESULTS

The assessment will indicate those areas that require attention in order to reduce risks to your staff and the quantitative nature of the results will help to prioritise any remedial actions.

The report should include:

• advice on changes to techniques that will decrease the risks to staff,

• recommendations on equipment that could reduce risks,

• and could potentially lead to certain tasks being prescribed totally.

The results of the assessment should also be used to provide information to generate any manual handling training course provided to your staff,

for example one of clients significantly reduced their manual handling risk after their assessment,  by reducing the amount of pre assembly in their factory. This lead to several smaller individual loads instead of one large one, easing handling. It was found to not affect total project time at all and in many cases made the job easier and quicker on site..

Specialist Assessments

If a non standard task has to be undertaken that will require manual handling then a separate assessment should be carried out for this task.

For more information on Manual Handling Assessment/Training