ASK YOURSELF

If the Task Involves;

Heavy lifting/ carrying

Unreasonable and/or frequent bending and twisting

Poor body posture

Excessive repetitive movement

Heavy pushing/ pulling

Hostile working environment

You need to record this and find

NO

(Further Action)

YES

(Continue)

Are the solutions applied adequate to allow Manual Handling Task to continue?

Health Management

Induction/

training

Reduce problem

Remove problem

Solutions

Remember

If you can’t remove the problem completely and instead only reduce the problem, then you should definitely introduce Health Surveillance.

ALL THE JARGON – What Does It Mean?

Hostile Working Environment	Hot/cold, cramped, cluttered etc
Remove	This means removal of the manual task through mechanisation and automation.
Reduce	This means reducing the strain on the human body through a range of measures which fall short of removal.
Induction/training Warning/supervision	All of these are designed to give people knowledge/ appreciation/understanding and to continually prompt and remind people not to drop their guard.
Health Surveillance/management	You need to ensure that a culture exists where people are not afraid to report sprains and strains. You may also take steps yourself by asking employees to complete a medical questionnaire, say every year to ask them if they have experienced any problems; this is basic but effective health surveillance.
Individual Capability	A good deal of the literature published on sprains and strains refers to individual capability, this toolkit does not. However, measures will need to be applied where special factors are covered by specific legislation, i.e. Expectant mothers Young persons Those covered by the Disability Discrimination Act