MHIA promotes better ergonomics for materials handlers

Free booklet offers tips for easing carrying, lifting and other manual materials handling tasks.

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 1/9/2008

Laborers and material handlers miss more workdays due to injury and illness than do any other workers. According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, this category of workers reports more injury and illness than do nurses, janitors, construction workers or truck drivers.

For this reason, the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) has published a 68-page booklet offering tips for improving ergonomics for materials handlers, and MHIA representatives attended the National Ergonomics Conference in Las Vegas this winter to promote the guidelines.

According to their presentation at the conference, manual materials handling often involves repetitive motion, pushing, pulling, bending, lifting and carrying—and these actions can result in the sprains, strains and back pain that so often cause lost labor hours. Good ergonomic programs, however, can reduce these injuries and improve productivity.

The following are a few of the ergonomic tips offered at the conference and in the MHIA booklet:

Make carrying easier

• Slide, push or roll instead of carrying when appropriate.
• Alternate carrying tasks with non-carrying tasks.
• Wear gloves that fit properly to improve your grip.
• Use conveyors, slides or chutes to avoid carrying heavy boxes.
• Use a pallet truck to transport heavy loads.

Make lifting easier

• Find a co-worker of a similar height to help lift a heavy load.
• Store only lightweight or infrequently lifted items on the floor.
• Use a lifter to raise or lower the load so that it’s level with the work surface. Then slide the load instead of lifting it.
• Use a vacuum lifter to facilitate lifting and maneuvering of heavy objects.

The booklet, “Ergonomic Guidelines for Manual Material Handling,” is available for free at the MHIA online store.