
Lessons Learned? Adapting COVID Measures For The Long-Term
With how quickly the press moved on from the pandemic to other stories, you might be forgiven for thinking that COVID vanished off the face of the earth. Unfortunately, although…
Please leave your details below and somebody will get back, today.
It’s not always the big dramatic injury risks, like plummeting through a roof, that need to be watched out for – though they get the most attention.
More everyday pain, discomfort, and inability to work is caused by simple things done often – like a bit of lifting the wrong way, too much twisting, or trying to move something a bit too big.
Not surprisingly, the construction industry has the highest rates of musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) in all the UK. MSD is basically injury to muscles, joints, tendons or the spine, leading to all sorts of aches and pains. And sometimes permanent disability.
The biggest culprit? Manual handling.
This basically means lifting, pushing and pulling, lowering ad carrying. And the workers most at risk are scaffolders, bricklayers, ground workers, electricians, demolition workers and general labourers. So pretty much everyone in the industry.
Fair question.
First, like all health & safety, be aware. Just knowing which activities should be come with some care – and more importantly, your workers knowing – will reduce the chances of injury!
Injuries come from three things in combination;
– Your physical ability
– The weight or force needed for the job
– The environment, including the weather
Watch out for these, and start thinking along the same lines – you’ll notice plenty of risks on your work site!
You can see these conditions are quite easy to watch out for once you start taking them seriously. And when you educate your workers to a degree where they start taking it seriously too, then you’ll suddenly see cases of MSD dropping quickly.
As always the HSE has a very detailed five-step procedure to mitigating and limiting manual handling risks as much as possible. You can go through it here: MSD and Manual Handling
But in the mean time, here are;
There you have it. If you apply these with care, you’ll do a great deal of good.
And your workers’ backs will thank you for it too!
Do you have any questions about manual lifting?
Or have you implemented procedures to reduce the risk on your sites?
Let us know, we’d love to chat.