What are the most common Risk Factors in Manual handling?
Some of the known risk factors associated with manual handling and/or occupational overuse syndrome are: • awkward body postures; • poorly designed workstations, equipment, machinery and tools not matched to the employee, including the effects of vibration and sudden impact forces; • poorly designed tasks, that is, factors such as employee position, forces required and the design and placement of equipment; • work organisation factors which may contribute to demands placed on employees, such as required output, duration and variation of tasks, number and duration of pauses and the urgency of deadlines; • inappropriate/poor arrangement of job design, for example, the requirement to perform the same repetitive movements; and • new employees, or those returning to work after an extended absence, being required to perform repetitive movements without a period for adjustment.
