Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: LIFTING

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to lifting tasks without use of administrative or engineering controls: a) Assembly Area - Employees were observed lifting and moving boxes containing water bottles in various areas of the facility from pallets to the floor and/or from the floor to pallets or conveyors. The evaluation of these lifting tasks indicated that employees are exposed to an increased risk of musculoskeletal injuries on 9/27/89. ABATEMENT NOTE: A review of the 1988 and 1988 OSHA 200 logs documented a pattern of musculoskeletal injuries attributed to handling boxes of materials with the majority of injuries associated with handling water bottle boxes. A contributing factor to these injuries may be the uneven lifts in combination with a twisting motion on the part of the employee. Among other methods, some feasible and acceptable abatement methods available to correct this hazard include: 1) Adjustment of the vertical and horizontal load distances from the body. - Keep the loads as close to the body as possible - Avoid simultaneous lifting and twisting - Design the work place to avoid floor lifts - Position pallets of materials closer to the actual work area. 2) Provide mechanical lifting aids such as lift tables (spring, hydraulic or pneumatic) so materials are picked up at waist height. (Lifting below the knees or above the shoulder height is more strenuous than lifting between these areas.) 3) Reduce the weight of the boxes that employees handle to below the action level calculated by using the NIOSH lifting guide. 4) Institute a training and education program. - covering risks of lifting - covering lifting biomechanics - covering musculoskeletal considerations - handling skills - posture, movement, timing - materials handling aids. 5) Institute a program of physical conditioning or stretching prior to the start of work and periodically throughout the day to reduce the risk of muscle strain. Step 1 Effective administrative protection, such as employee training, physical assessment, job rotatio, etc., shall be provided as an interim protective measure until feasible engineering or administrative controls can be implemented or whenever such controls fail to reduce employee exposure to nominal risk. Step 2 Submit to the area director a written detailed plan of abatement outlining a schedule for the implementation of engineering or administrative control measures to control the risk of employee injury due to manual lifting tasks. The plan shall include at a minimum, target dates for the following actions which must be consistent with the dates required by this citation. 1) Evaluation of the conditions, locations and manual lifting activities that the employees perform at the onset of musculoskeletal injuries. 2) Evaluation of applicable control measures. 3) Procurement, installation and operation of selected control measures. 4) Monitoring to assure effective utilization of the control measures. Step 3 Abatement shall have been completed by implementation of feasible engineering controls upon verification of their effectiveness in reducing the occurrence of musculoskeletal injuries.