Help Your Workers Prevent Back Injuries
Back injury caused by improper lifting, bending or twisting, or over-reaching is a leading cause of lost workdays in North American workplaces.
Workers in nearly every department of a workplace are exposed to lifting, whether they are handling boxes of paper, heavy files, or lifting patients or other heavy objects.
As a supervisor, you probably don’t have to look far to see someone lifting improperly and potentially risking a debilitating back injury. Many workers haven’t been taught how to lift properly and others could certainly use some refresher training.
The best defense against back injuries is to minimize the need for manual lifting of objects through engineering controls, such as ensuring the use of lifting equipment or hoists, dollies, platforms and conveyors.
You can also arrange to have materials shipped to your facility in bags or boxes that weigh less so that workers don’t risk back injuries by lifting them.
Supervisors can also reduce the need for workers to bend, twist and reach by ensuring that heavy objects are stored at waist level, and that tools and materials are placed close to work stations to eliminate the need for reaching.
The next line of defense is administrative or work-practice controls, including rotating workers through different tasks with varying physical demands throughout a shift and scheduling short breaks to give workers a chance to rest and recover. Also consider allowing more time for workers to complete repetitive tasks involving lifting.
If workers are required to manually handle heavy boxes, consider reducing the size and weight of boxes to reduce the likelihood of muscle strain.
Supervisors should also consider implementing a two-person lift rule for any materials weighing more than 50 pounds (23 kilograms). Also, some objects, although not particularly heavy, are awkwardly shaped and difficult to carry, so workers should ask for help in moving these as well.
Workers also need training on safe lifting, including demonstrations and observation by supervisors.
Workers should be instructed to:
- Test the weight of the object being carried before committing to it. If it’s too heavy, they need to ask for help or use a mechanical lifting aid.
- Bend at the knees and use the leg muscles to propel the lift smoothly, not jerkily, while keeping the back straight, not bent. Keeping one’s chin tucked in helps to keep the back straight.
- Hold objects being lifted close to the body, maintaining a wide stance to help maintain good balance.
- Turn their feet to change direction, as opposed to twisting the body while lifting or carrying.
- Place objects that will need to be picked up later on a table or platform, rather than on the floor.
- When moving a load on a cart, a worker should push, rather than pull, the load. Pushing a load puts the body in a more neutral posture and allows the worker to use his or her body weight to move the load, so it’s easier on the back. Workers are often in a twisted position when pulling and they are also often only using one hand to pull the load, thereby putting more strain on their bodies.
