A major cause of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) is poor manual handling, particularly:
- regular, repetitive actions
- twisting and turning with loads
- extended reach, such as low and high extremes
Injury is more likely when people are inexperienced or untrained or when task planning is inadequate.
Manual handling assessment tools from HSE
Lifting, carrying and team manual handling activities involve risks, a significant one being physical injury to the operative. To help employers and staff to properly assess tasks the HSE has developed a series of information, training and decision-support tools.
One of these, the MAC tool, has been developed to help people in a workplace to identify high risk manual handling activities. The MAC tool is designed to help people to understand, interpret, categorise and reduce the level of risk associated with manual handling activities. The MAC is essentially a flowchart that helps to highlight high risk manual handling tasks through a numerical and a colour-coded score system.
General information is provided on the risks associated with manual handling and the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR-1992) which outlines the employers duties.
Where can you find the MAC tool?
You can download a copy of the HSE MAC Document as a PDF here.
You can also find valuable information in the Musculoskeletal section of the HSE website.
For specific advice and training about manual handling just contact Acorn by phone or by email.
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