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: a) Employee in the "Raw Room" are required to lift 50-70 lb. totes from pallets to heights 12" to 50" resulting in stressors likely to cause back injuries. An effective musculoskeletal injury prevention program had not been implemented. While the ultimate responsibility for correcting the hazard rests with the employer, feasible and acceptable abatement methods to correct this hazard include, but are not limited to the following: 1) Identification of all current employees who experience symptoms and musculoskeletal injuries. 2) A survey of all work areas to identify any actions or stressors which may contribute to back and muscle injuries. 3) An ongoing comprehensive training program which will ensure that all employees and managers possess working knowledge of body mechanics, manual lifting and team techniques. 4) A work conditioning program to help new employees adapt to the various material handling tasks. 5) A light duty program. 6) A medical surveillance system for tracking musculoskeletal injuries. b) Employees in the "Raw room" are required to lift 50-70 lb. totes from pallets to heights 12" to 50" resulting in stressors likely to cause back injures. Effective engineering and/or administrative controls had not been implemented to reduce the stressors. While ultimate responsibility for correcting the hazard rest with the employer, feasible and acceptable abatement methods to correct this hazard include, but are not limited to the following. 1) Workplace Redesign a) Reduction of the horizontal load distance from the body. 2) Job Redesign a) Reduction of lifting frequencies. 3) Container/Load Redesign a) Shape of container b) Size of container c) Stability of container. d) Weight of container. 4) Utilization of mechanical lifting aids. THREE STEP ABATEMENT PLAN STEP 1 - Effective administrative protection such as employee training, physical assessment, job rotation, etc. shall be provided as an interim protective measure until feasible engineering and/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 and/or administrative controls which will reduce employee injury due to manual lifting tasks. STEP 3 - Abatement shall have been completed by implementation of feasible engineering and/or administrative controls upon verification of their effectiveness in reducing the occurance of musculoskeletal injuries.