Manual handling - know your limits!Introduction
The Manual Handling Operations (MHO) Regulations 1992, came into force 1 January 1993.
The MHO Regulations were made under the Health & Safety at Work Act (1974) to implement the European Directive 90/269/EEC on the manual handling of loads.
Manual handling - the transporting or supporting of loads by hand or bodily force:
- Lifting
- Putting down
- Pushing
- Carrying
- Moving
More than 25% of accidents reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are associated with manual handling.
Fatal manual handling accidents are rare, major injuries (e.g. broken arms) are more common, but the vast majority are reported as “over three day” injuries; most commonly a sprain or strain of the back.
Sprains and strains arise from the incorrect application and/or prolongation of bodily force. Poor posture and excessive repetition of movement are important contributory factors. Many manual handling injuries are cumulative rather than attributable to a single incident. A full recovery is not always made; the result can be physical impairment or even permanent disability.
Manual Handling accidents are not confined to a narrow range of industries but is widespread, eg banking & finance (31% of HSE reported accidents due to manual handling, medical etc. (55%).
There is now substantial international acceptance on both the scale of manual handling problems and methods of prevention.
Ergonomics is the science and technology of fitting the job to the person rather than the person to job. An ergonomic approach is the key to removing or reducing the risk of manual injury and is central to the new MHO Regulations. In this approach manual handling is considered as a whole; the nature of task, the load, the working environment and individual capability.
The MHO regulations
The MHO Regulations establish a clear hierarchy of measures:
(a) Avoid hazardous manual handling operations so far as is reasonably practicable - this may be done by redesigning the task to avoid moving the load or by automating or mechanising the process;
(b) Assess, in a suitable and sufficient way, any hazardous manual handling operations which cannot be avoided; and
(c) Reduce the risk of injury from those Manual Handling operations so far as is reasonably practicable.
Particular consideration should be given to provision of :
Mechanical assistance, but if not appropriate, improvements to the:
- Task
- Load
- Working environment should be explored.
A full assessment of every manual handling operation would be a major undertaking and involve much wasted effort. The MHO Regulations offer numerical guidelines which can be used as an initial filter. These guidelines set out an approximate boundary within which the risk of injury is low and the need for a detailed assessment is unwarranted.
Summary of Statutory Requirements
Citation and commencement (Regulation 1)
The regulations called Manual Handling Operations Regulations (1992) and came into force 1 January 1993.
Interpretation (Regulation 2)
"Injury" - due to mechanical nature, not due to substance e.g. toxic or corrosive, account should be taken that might affect the grip, or cause direct injury e.g. slipperiness, roughness, sharp edges, extremes of temperature.
"Load" - includes any person or animal, a discrete moveable object - includes human patients/animals. A implement, tool or machine is not considered a load, whilst being used for its intended purpose.
"Manual handling operations" - means any transporting or supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling , carrying or moving thereof) by hand or by bodily force.
The effort may be applied directly to the load, or indirectly by hauling on a rope or pulling on a lever. Introducing mechanical assistance, e.g. a sack truck, may reduce but not eliminate manual handling since human effort is still required to move, steady or position the load.
Duties of Employers
Avoidance of Manual Handling (Regulation (1)(a))
Each employer shall:
So far as is reasonably practicable, AVOID the need for his employees to undertake any manual handling operations at work which involve a risk of their being injured.
- Risk of injury: It is not necessary to assess in great detail, those operations which can readily be avoided, or is the risk is clearly of a low order.
- Elimination of handling: Can movement of load be eliminated? Are handling operations unnecessary? e.g., can a process such as machining or wrapping be carried out in situ, without handling loads? Mohammed to the mountain, rather than the mountain to Mohammed!
- Automation or mechanisation: If manual handling cannot be avoided, then consider automation or mechanisation (although these may introduce other risks; e.g., maintenance repair, electrical hazards, mechanical hazards (e.g. powered conveyors and fork lifts).
Avoidance of manual handling operations often bring about additional benefits in terms of greater efficiency and productivity, and reduce damage to loads.
Assessment (Regulation 4 (1) (b) (i))
Where it is not reasonably practicable to avoid the need for his employees to undertake any manual handling operations at work which involves a risk of their being injured, the Employer shall:
Make a suitable and sufficient assessment of all such manual handling operations to be undertaken by them, taking into account the task, the load, the working environment and individual capability.
Reducing the risk (Regulation 4(1) (b) (ii))
Where it is not reasonably practicable to avoid the need for his employees to undertake any manual handling operations at work which involves a risk of their being injured, the Employer shall:
Take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of injury to these employees arising out of their undertaking any such manual handling operations to the lowest level reasonably practicable.
The assessment
Who should carry out the assessment?
A meaningful assessment can only be based on a thorough practical understanding of the type of manual handling tasks to be performed, the loads to be handled and the working environment in which the tasks will be carried out. Those responsible for staff, the tasks and the work area (managers and supervisors) should carried out the assessment, with advice from College Safety Officers and the Health and Safety Office.
See the for a guide on acceptable load levels.
Staff Contribution
The views of staff can be of particular value in identifying manual handling problems and practical solutions to them. Staff, their Health and Safety Representatives, safety groups and the Safety Committee should play a positive role in the assessment procedure. They can assist the University by highlighting difficulties from such things as the size or shape of loads, the frequency with which they are handled or the circumstances in which the handling operations are carried out.
How detailed should an assessment be?
Assessments will be “suitable and sufficient” if they look, in a considered way at the totality of the manual handling operations staff are required to perform. Properly based ‘generic’ assessments which draw together common threads of a range of broadly similar operations are quite acceptable. Indeed a more narrowly focused assessment may fail to reflect adequately the range of operations encountered.
Recording the assessment
In general, the assessment should be recorded on the University Assessment Form and kept as long as it remains relevant. However the assessment need not be recorded if :
(a) it could easily be repeated and explained at any time because it is simple and obvious; or
(b) the manual handling operations are quite straightforward, of low risk, are going to last only a very short time, and the time taken to record them would be disproportionate.
The University Assessment Form
The University is in two parts:
Part A: Preliminary Assessment - where:
- the load is assessed to determine whether they are within guidelines given in the MHO Regulations
- the task is assessed to determine whether it can be carried out without significant risk of injury.
If the answer to the above is ‘yes’, no further action is necessary. Otherwise
Part B: Detailed Assessment - will be necessary.
The University Assessment Form: Example
An example of how the form may be filled in is given in Appendix 1.
Assessment results
When completed, the Assessment Forms will contain an Overall Risk Assessment, a decision on whether the task can be Avoided and, if not, how the risk of injury may be reduced using a series of Remedial Actions.
The Overall Risk Assessment will determine a priority list for action. The majority of available resources should be applied to high risk assessments, followed by medium, then low risk.
The Assessment forms should be kept. centrally, within each Department, available for inspection by the enforcing authorities, if necessary.
The Assessments should be reviewed annually, or if there is any significant change to the manual handling operation.
