Pushing, Pulling, Lifting and Lowering: Manual Materials Handling in the Workplace

March 4, 2008
Centre for Health and Safety Innovation (CHSI), Mississauga

We are in the process of creating accessible versions of the materials for this event. Please check back soon for presentations and videos.

Presentations and videos

  • Welcome and Introduction
  • Keynote: Using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) equation
  • Ergonomics regulatory requirements
  • Auto assembly case studies
  • Challenges in ergonomic change
  • Bringing management and labour together

Summary

“There is no safe way to lift a heavy object off the floor. You are not only lifting the weight of the object, you are also lifting up the weight of your body."

"There is no job that cannot be improved by mechanical changes; therefore fitness tests are not really relevant."

"Make the business case when you are advocating ergonomic changes; that way you will get buy-in from upper management. By making the process participative, you will get buy-in from the workers."

"Making ergonomics changes is a process. You need to identify the high-risk jobs, do an exposure assessment; prioritize the jobs; identify the best solutions; implement the controls; and re-evaluate the job."

"Implementing ergonomic changes will increase the reporting of pain and injury, but will lower the severity."

Many words of advice emerged from a one-day workshop on manual materials handling. The conference was held in Toronto, March 4, 2008. It was co-sponsored by the Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). There were over 70 attendees and another 150 groups signed into the workshop via webinar.

The workshop took the view that there are multiple perspectives to this complex issue. In the morning, participants heard from researchers, policy experts, a union and a management representative, and consultants from the worlds of health and safety, disability management and injured workers. There were breakout sessions in the afternoon for the participants to consider how the presenters' information applied to the workplace, and were tasked with coming up with questions for the presenters to answer in a panel session that ended the day.