Employers must get away from the idea that manual handling training and
ergonomic assessments are a universal panacea for reducing the risk of
musculoskeletal injuries, argued Dr Richard Graveling, senior ergonomics
consultant and head of human sciences at the Institute of Occupational Medicine
(IOM).
He said manual handling training has had so much money spent on it over the
years that if it was really so effective, there would be no need for
regulations.
He said it should be viewed instead as a useful part of health and safety
management.
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Many organisations pay lip service to the regulations, said Graveling, who
described the display screen equipment and manual handling regulations as a
list of ingredients people need to put together to ensure they work.
He said "educating people to understand why they must think about how
they work and sit" is the most practical way to get the ergonomics basics
correct.
