What is manual handling?
Before we get into the topic of manual handling risk assessment, we have to first identify and get to know the meaning of manual handling. The best way to describe it is ”Any work, task or activity which requires bodily force to push, pull, hold, lift, move or hoist any load using only the power of the body”
What kind of injuries one may suffer from this type of work?
There are two types of injuries one may suffer from this work. Internal injuries and external ones.
Internal injuries
They may include cutting, burning, electrocution some bruising or contusions
External injuries
They may include twisting of the ankle, spinal injuries, back injuries, prolapsed disks, and other musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) or work-related upper limb disorders WRULDs which are mostly concerned with your joints.
Avoid Manual Handling works altogether
Avoiding doing the task manually can prevent injuries which is the bread and butter of health and safety. Avoiding is basically the elimination step in the hierarchy of risk control
Use mechanical means
Avoiding doing the task manually also means using mechanical means to do the job. This can include using a crane, a hoisting device, a trolley, or even a crane if it’s required. The more you can avoid manual handling, the better off and safer you’ll be!
What is T.I.L.E?
This is an acronym for four words (Task, Individual, Load, and Environment). We have to use this in the workplace as an on-the-spot risk assessment or as a Last Minute Risk Assessment – LMRA. The TILE must be followed whenever there is a manual handling task and hopefully, the following information will help you. Let us break down the task risk assessment and make sure it fits the above 4 requirements.
1- Task
This is when we analyze the task itself and see what it involves. Does it involve carrying, pulling, pushing, lifting, lowering, hoisting, or holding for a period of time? The video goes into great detail to explain each one and gives examples and here is one of them.
Carrying something
If the task involves carrying a box of A-4 papers and taking it to an upper floor, there aren’t any issues here, this is normal. But, if it involves me carrying 2 boxes of A-4 papers and taking them six floors up and the elevator is broken, that’s something else.
Repetitive motion
If the task involves repetitive motion like shoveling using a hand saw or checking out items at the supermarket another consideration must be made here for this job and the video explains a lot of it.
Work above shoulder levels, work in an awkward posture, work that requires holding a pose for a long time, or tasks that require pulling, pushing, standing, kneeling, laying down, or using our bodily force. all these things must be considered when we are analyzing a manual handling task.
2- Individual
Just like we broke down the task, we must now estimate the strength required to do this job. Some readers or viewers of the video may take this the wrong way and assume misogyny has taken place here but that can’t be farther from the truth.
We have to be fair when we choose the person for the job. In health and safety, there is something called ergonomics and one of its points is to always make sure the job fits the worker and not have the worker fit the job. However, in this particular situation, we must choose the right person for the job. It does not go against ergonomics, on the contrary, this is the best solution to avoid a manual handling injury.
There are some jobs that require a man and others that require a woman. to go even further than this, some jobs prefer a young healthy man over an older man who has some health issues. So in short, we have to have the right person for the job at hand.
3- Load
The load. This is basically the thing(s) that must be moved from one point to another. We took the example of a box of papers above but let us now go a little further. Manual handling tasks require a lot of energy and bodily force, they don’t always require the person to move from one point to another, sometimes, they have to move a load while they are standing in their place for example, unloading a lory by handing the load to each other or pulling the cable from a roll.
Characteristics of the load
We have to also look at the load and analyze it. We have to consider the weight (heavy, light), the shape (is it a geometric shape or not), and whether it has handles. Is it toxic? liquid? powder? chemical? fragile (…..)
4- Environment
This part of the (TILE) focuses on the environment in which the task must be carried out and we need to break down the environment section into two parts.
The environment of the workplace
This is exactly what it sounds like. We have to consider the place where we have to do the work. Is the environment of the workplace dark, or well-lit? Is it noisy? Are there any other tasks taking place while we have to do our job? Will this job affect the other jobs already in progress, or will the other jobs affect this one? Do we have to travel far with the load? is the ground slippery or firm? is it far or near? and many other points that are covered in the video as well.
The environment of the world
Here we must consider the weather. Is it rainy? Foggy? snowy? windy? dusty? is there lightening? will the weather affect our job or be helpful to us?
What’s next?
Next, we must have all the information based on the tile and we have to determine how the job will be done. It is always to have mechanical aids rather than doing the jobs by hand or bodily force but if it’s not possible, we can break down the job into steps or have a rotation of the workforce so people are getting enough rest.
The Video
The video has a lot more information that I could cover in this short article. I hope you find the information useful and follow the advice inside.