In the modern workplace, most heavy materials are handled with the help of hand trucks, pallet trucks and forklifts. However, it still requires a lot of manual work. About one million work-related musculoskeletal injuries occur each year in the Australia. Many of these are preventable.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has created comprehensive guidelines for workers. These include guidelines for ergonomic material handling from Reflex equip including ergonomically designed workplaces and recommendations for handling materials as safely as possible.
Although there may be costs involved in improving the work environment and training employees, the return to productivity is greater than that. Labour fatigue is reduced and there are fewer interruptions and disruptions in production while there are fewer injuries. A safe work environment significantly reduces the time to absenteeism and recovery rate. Additionally, workers’ compensation claims are few and far between.
Guidelines to use material handling equipment manually
The guidelines identify five manual materials that handle errors that lead to injuries. These include lifting with awkward postures, repetitive movements, trying to lift or move very heavy loads, standing in a fixed position for too long, and exposure to sharp or hard surfaces. In addition, extreme heat, cold, noise or air pollution can lead to illness, fatigue and other problems.
Try to minimize working tools with hard-edged surfaces. Whenever possible, purchase ergonomically designed material handling equipment. When noise is unavoidable, provide ear protection. A variety of breathing equipment should be on hand and freely available for use in dusty conditions or strong smoke.
To find problem areas, talk to workers. They may be suffering from something that causes them chronic pain or discomfort and not mention it for fear of losing their job or losing their face with their work colleagues. Also, look for historical reasons for an employee’s absence or sick leave. There may be a pattern that will lead you to the source of the problem.
Once you have identified problem areas, you can begin to make changes to workers’ duties and their work environment. Rather than relying on a worker to handle one type of task, giving them a more varied work structure will reduce the likelihood of repetitive strain injury (RSI). Heavy loads must be delivered or handled by machinery. All workers should be taught the rules of ergonomic lifting and encouraged to always lift and move objects correctly to avoid back and other injuries.These are some basic NIOSH guidelines for handling materials. For more details, you can contact NIOSH for complete detailed guide.
