Increase safety for your workforce, reduce accidents and injury days off, reduce insurance claims, increase productivity.
Pushing and pulling of loads is a way to avoid manual lifting and carrying of objects such as by putting the load on a trolley.
However, when people push and pull, for example trollies, there may be risk of other musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which you need to consider and eliminate or reduce.
Although you may think that the Manual Handling Operations Regulations only apply to the lifting, lowering and carrying of loads, they also apply to pushing and pulling.
- 11% of manual handling - related RIDDOR accidents investigated by HSE involved pushing and pulling.
- The most frequently reported site of injury was the back (44%).
- Followed by the upper limbs (shoulder, arms, wrist and hand) accounted for 28.6%.
- 12% more accidents involved pulling than pushing (where the activity could be identified within the reports).
- 61% of accidents involved pushing and pulling objects that were not supported on wheels (e.g. bales, desks etc.)
- 35% of pushing and pulling accidents involved wheeled objects.
