MANUAL HANDLING OPERATIONS REGULATIONS 1992 Sophie Owens

MANUAL HANDLING OPERATIONS REGULATIONS 1992 Manual handling injuries can have serious implications for the employer and the person who has been injured. They can occur almost anywhere in the workplace and heavy manual labour, awkward postures, repetitive movements of arms, legs and back or previous/existing injury can increase the risk. To help prevent manual handling injuries in the workplace, you should avoid such tasks as far as possible. However, where it is not possible to avoid handling a load, employers must look at the risks of that task and put sensible health and safety measures in place to prevent and avoid injury

MANUAL HANDLING OPERATIONS REGULATIONS 1992 The Regulations establish the following clear hierarchy of control measures: 1.Avoid hazardous manual handling operations so far as is reasonably practicable, for example by redesigning the task to avoid moving the load or by automating or mechanising the process. 2.Make a suitable and sufficient assessment of any hazardous manual handling operations that cannot be avoided. 3.Reduce the risk of injury from those operations so far as is reasonably practicable. Where possible, you should provide mechanical assistance, for example a sack trolley or hoist. Where this is not reasonably practicable, look at ways of changing the task, the load and working environment

MANUAL HANDLING OPERATIONS REGULATIONS 1992 Demonstration from Rachael… There are some simple things to do before and during the lift/carry:  Remove obstructions from the route.  For a long lift, plan to rest the load midway on a table or bench to change grip.  Keep the load close to the waist. The load should be kept close to the body for as long as possible while lifting.  Keep the heaviest side of the load next to the body.  Adopt a stable position and make sure your feet are apart, with one leg slightly forward to maintain balance

Activity Take a white board and write the 5 steps to lifting a heavy load correctly.