Three easy steps to better manual handling
The Safety & Health Expo continued today with a talk in the BOHS Worker Health Protection Theatre by Stewart Cruikshank from Pristine Condition, manual handling experts who draw on 19 years of weightlifting experience to deliver a different type of training.
Too many injuries happen in the workplace due to lifting in the wrong way. Weightlifters avoid injury even though they are routinely handling loads that are greater than so-called ‘recommended limits’, because they know the right way to lift. Pristine Condition have applied this experience to industry and manual handling.
Cruikshank went on to explain why conventional instruction techniques are not only technically flawed, but also that individuals don’t buy into it. People get stuck in bad habits, or have been trained incorrectly in the first place, leading to back pain and other long-term injuries.
Cruikshank offered three simple steps that businesses can follow in order to better protect their workers from injury.
Three steps to success:
- Training: This is key to getting individuals to stop relying on bad habits and buy into good behaviour. It’s important to remove the myths associated with lifting and handling. Correct technique doesn’t just have to be work related, it can carry over into the home as well.
- Monitoring: Training should not be the end of the line, workers still need to be monitored and checked to make sure they are not falling back on bad habits. People also need to feel confident in challenging another worker’s bad technique – and demonstrate how it should be done.
- Support: Good manual handling techniques should be under constant review, with the option of refresher courses and additional training if needed. Pristine Condition offer continuous support for their clients, and this support should be maintained within the workplace.
Three easy steps to better manual handling
What can safety professionals learn from weightlifting? Quite a lot as it turns out.
Safety & Health Practitioner
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Too many injuries happen in the workplace due to lifting in the wrong way. Weightlifters avoid injury even though they are routinely handling loads that are greater than so-called ‘recommended limits’, because they know the right way to lift. Pristine Condition have applied this experience to industry and manual handling.
