• What law applies
• About manual tasks
• How to prevent injury from manual tasks
• How to control specific risk factors – some options
  • Forceful exertions
  • Working postures
  • Repetition and static positions
  • Vibration
  • Work area design
  • Workplace environment
  • Hand tools
  • The nature of loads
  • Load handling
  • Individual worker characteristics
  • Work organisation
• People handling
• Preventing common injuries
• Common manual tasks issues
  • Maximum weight limits
  • Team handling
  • Handling 40kg cement and other product bags
• Ergonomic workstations for keyboard operators

Manual Tasks Involving the Handling of People Code of Practice 2001

Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2000

• Risk management
• Personal protective equipment
• First aid

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	Manual Tasks Code of Practice (B)

Forceful exertions

Forceful muscular exertions place high loads on muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints and discs. Muscles fatigue with increased exertion, and need more time to recover.

If soft tissue does not have time to recover, injury is likely to develop over a period of time. If the exertions are forceful enough, body tissue may be damaged immediately.

The level of muscular effort needed to do a job may be increased by factors such as:

• awkward or fixed working postures
• heavy, bulky or difficult to grip loads
• fast or sudden movements
• working with a grip that does not allow a large area of the hand to contact the handle
• using vibrating tools that need more effort to grip
• wearing gloves (which increase muscular effort involved in using a tool by about 20%)
• the design of hand tools
• the nature of the load (heavy, awkward or unstable)
• characteristics of a person/patient being handled (for example, he/she may make an unpredictable movement)
• the load handling procedure (for example, lifting, pushing, pulling or carrying)
• work organisation (for example, poorly maintained equipment that requires effort to use)
• the individual's strength and capacity to do the manual task.

Often it is a mixture of a number of factors that will increase the risk of injury from forceful exertion.

Pushing and pulling loads that are too heavy and require forceful exertion may strain the neck, back and shoulder. Workplace examples include using a pallet jack, sliding a box across the floor and operating a sliding compactus.

Pushing and pulling involve three phases:

1. starting the load in motion (usually requiring the most exertion)
2. sustaining the motion
3. stopping the load from moving.

Gripping by the hand is used in most industrial tasks. We grip tools, containers, equipment and loads using three main types of grip:

• the power grip - where a large surface of the hand is used and muscle force is low
• the hook grip - where fingers curl around an object and the thumb stabilises the load; equal in strength to the power grip strength
• the pinch grip - when the ends of fingers pinch an object; grip strength is only 25% of the power grip strength.

The muscular effort involved in gripping sometimes leads to carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful disorder of the hand and wrist.

• Talk to workers to find out what jobs create problems. Assess the risk of over-exertion and introduce ways to reduce the risk. Consider:
  • the weight of loads being moved
  • frequency of the work
  • length of time workers are involved in certain activities
  • condition of the equipment
  • condition of floor surfaces.
• Use aids such as non powered conveyors, air bearings, ball castor tables and monorails.
• Use light hand trucks and trolleys with large wheels or castors that are correctly sized and roll freely. Maintain trolleys regularly.
• Ensure that the trolley height with its load does not obstruct visibility or upset stability. Check that the trolley width allows easy access around the workplace.
• Use trolleys, pallet jacks and other aids correctly. Training should cover the use of aids in congested or confined spaces, how to reverse castors, how to pack a trolley, and sideways movement of trolleys.
• Use handles that are about 1m high. Use vertical handles where possible.
• Treat floor surfaces to reduce friction. Provide a slip resistant surface on ramps, and keep ramp gradients to less than 1:14.
• Push rather than pull a load. It involves less work by the muscles of the lower back, and generally allows better visibility.
• When moving a load, know where it has to stop, and slow down gradually. Choose a route with the best surface conditions, and avoid doors that have to be held open while the load is carried through it.
• Use a 'shake hands' position for maximum grip strength. Choose hand tools suited to the task, and with handles that allow a power grip.
• Use a hook grip for long thin items, not a pinch grip.
• If necessary (such as in cold conditions), wear only well fitted gloves.

Read about forceful exertions relating to hand tools, the nature of loads, load handling, work organisation and ways of preventing common musculoskeletal injuries.

More information on forceful exertions is provided in section 10.1 of the Manual Tasks Advisory Standard 2000 (now known as a Code of Practice).

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