Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 002 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 serious injury from lifting tasks without the use of administrative or engineering controls: Employees in the Shipping/Receiving Department were observed lifting and moving boxes of parts from pallets to the scale on the workbench or from the floor to pallets. The evaluation of these tasks indicated that the employees were exposed to an increased risk of musculoskeletal injuries on 9/18/90, and the injury and illness records for this department from 1988 through 7/12/90 documented a pattern of such injuries. 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 area to avoid floor lifts. Lifts from waist level are the least stressful. - Reposition the scales to reduce the lifting required. 2) Evaluate materials flow and implement installation of the purchased conveyor system to reduce manual handling of boxes. Adjust the height of the conveyor to a level near waist height. 3) Reduce the weights of containers to be shipped and try to order heavier parts such as the circuit boards packaged in smaller lots so that necessary lifts are below the action level calculated using the NIOSH lifting guide. 4) Evaluate the injury reports for backs and other strains related to lifting to monitor rates and causes. 5) Provide effective training for prevention of back injuries covering: - Lifting risks. - The biomechanics of lifting. - Handling skills-posture, movement, timing, avoidance of twisting. Step 1 Effective administrative protection, such as employee training and physical assessment of workers required to do lifting, 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 a 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 minumum, 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 Implement chosen engineering and administrative controls. Submit letter of abatement as the elements are completed.