Fact. Manual handling is the biggest cause of injuries in Australian workplaces. According to Safe Work Australia’s Keep Work, Health and Safety Statistics (2021), body stressing accounts for 37% of serious injury claims in the workplace.
Whether you are lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, or carrying, the stresses on your body can be immense, especially if you have poor technique or are using the wrong equipment for the task. The list of injuries is long, and includes:
• Back, neck, and shoulder injuries
• Sprains and strains to other parts of the body
• Hernias.
All these injuries fall under the broad category of Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD’s). Unfortunately, some of these MSD’s can sometimes become chronic conditions that can be debilitating and hinder your quality of life. However, injuries need not always occur. Blackwoods has implemented S.A.M. (Stop, Assess, Move) in its workplaces. It is a process that entices greater thought before moving an object, and then applying the correct procedures and equipment during the moving.
Rigging and lifting specialist Bullivants, only knows too well the importance of safe manual handling for its employees. “Pacific Scissor Trolleys are great examples of how we can apply techniques like S.A.M. to reduce manual handling injuries. Using hydraulic foot pedals and ergonomic levers, these trolleys are designed to lift and shift loads up to 500 kilograms,” says Mark Laws, Regional Operations Manager, Bullivants.
It is the duty of every employer to make their workplace safe. The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations (2017) of Victoria, have specific duties about identifying and controlling risks of injuries from manual handling; this includes the handling of hazardous materials. If possible, risks should be eliminated, but this is not always reasonably practical; in these situations, employers must consider:
• Changing the workplace layout, the workplace environment, or the systems of work.
• Changing the things used in the hazardous manual handling, such as characteristics of the load or equipment used.
to handle the load
• Using mechanical aids.
• A combination of the above.
