Guidance on Good Manual Handling Principles

A new report presents the outcome of an exercise carried out to establish scientifically-based principles for manual handling training, both for conventional (two-handed, symmetrical) lifting and for ‘non-standard ’ lifting, where the conventional technique is inapplicable.

The research was carried out by the Institute of Occupational Medicine, and was funded by the HSE.

Legislation
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 place requirements on employers to avoid hazardous manual handling activities where reasonably practicable to do so. Where this is not practicable they must institute measures intended to remove or reduce the risk of injury associated with manual handling tasks.

Good Principles
A total of 37 national and international experts contributed in some way to the exercise. On the basis of their comments, a series of principles were identified relating to conventional lifting. These either supplemented or refined those presented in the current version of the 'Guidelines to the Regulations', L23 (HSE, 1998).

The principles eventually proposed were:

- Think before you lift.
- Keep the load close to your waist.
- Adopt a stable position.
- Ensure a good hold on the load.
- At the start of the lift, moderate flexion (slight bending) of the back, hips and knees is preferable to fully flexing the back (stooping) or the hips and knees (squatting).
- Don't flex your spine any further as you lift.
- Avoid twisting the trunk or leaning sideways, especially while the back is bent.
- Keep you head up when handling.
- Move smoothly.
- Don't lift more than you can easily manage.
- Put down then adjust.

For each of these, explanatory sub-text is proposed in the report, mirroring the current style in L23.

The full report (PDF, 900Kb) can be downloaded from:
www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr097.pdf
This document is for general guidance and research purposes only, and does not purport to give professional advice. Please check the date at the top of the article; the Workplace Law Network retains historic articles for general research.