Your health and safety guide to Manual handling - WorkSafe Victoria

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How to comply continuedFindWhile not all manual handling tasks areunsafe, manual handling is hazardouswhen it involves any of the following:• repetitive or sustained force, movementor awkward posture• high force (to move or support anyobject that most people would finddifficult because of the effort it requires)• sustained vibration• handling live people or animals• handling loads that are unstable,unbalanced or diffi cult to hold.Some common examples of hazardousmanual handling tasks include:• moving large sacks of grain• using a jackhammer• sitting at a cramped desk and typingfor long periods at a time• using tin snips with grips that arewide apart• steering a heavily loaded trolleythrough a busy warehouse.Find all the tasks which have thesecharacteristics. Work out whether anyof the tasks you’ve found pose a risk.Forces, postures, movements and vibrationusually affect each other to increase therisk. For example, more force has to beexerted to pick up a box from the fl oorcompared with picking it up from abench at thigh height.The longer these tasks are done,the greater the risk.Environmental factors such as heat,cold and lighting levels can alsoincrease the risk.Unexpected movement, high forceand awkward postures.8 HAZARD GUIDE / MANUAL HANDLING
Repetitive twisting and bending.Sustained awkward posture.Exposure to sustained vibration.High force needed to grip and moveheavy sack.HAZARD GUIDE / MANUAL HANDLING9
Page 1 and 2: Your health andsafety guide toManua
Page 3 and 4: Manual handling is the biggest caus
Page 5 and 6: About the problemWhat is manual han
Page 7 and 8: EmployersAs an employer, you have a
Page 9: How to complyWorkSafe has a range o
Page 13 and 14: 2. Change the workplace, the object
Page 15 and 16: In this seriesHazardsYour health an

Your health and safety guide to Manual handling - WorkSafe Victoria

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