Musculoskeletal disorders - Stage 2: Assess health risks

Assess the health risks

Musculoskeletal injuries are common in the construction industry. They typically arise from work that involves:

• lifting, lowering and carrying heavy materials (eg roof tiles);
• pushing and pulling objects and equipment (eg barrows);
• bending and twisting (eg plastering);
• repetitive movements (eg tying rebar);
• working too long without breaks;
• awkward working positions (eg bending or crouching) or restricted space (eg working in a roof void);
• high job demands or time pressure, which may mean that workers resort to brute force rather than using a mechanical handling solution.

The injuries are often caused by a combination of:

• the work itself (eg the weight of a load or the force that needs to be applied);
• the work environment, including weather conditions; and
• a worker's physical capability.

HSE has developed the Manual Handling Assessment Chart (MAC) to help you to identify and prioritise activities that involve a risk of MSD. You may also find it useful to talk to workers about the tasks they do at work and how they are actually done. Ask if any of them have experienced MSD problems or back pain.

The kinds of activity you may need to consider include:

If you do not have information (including weight) about products you intend to use, contact the supplier - they have to provide customers with relevant health and safety information.

Risk assessment

You now need to assess the risk from the work that people are doing. The assessment should focus on how work is actually done. The process should help you decide whether enough has been done to prevent workers developing an injury, or whether there is a need for further action.

In relation to upper-limb disorders, the filter and risk assessment worksheets featured in Upper-limb disorders in the workplace HSG60can be used as an aid to risk assessment. They are intended to help employers identify the potential risks and possible ways to reduce them.

Example: Risk assessment for MSDs

Step	Action	Example
1	Identify the hazards	32 kg trench blocks are to be used at ground level on a supermarket site.
2	Decide who might be harmed and how	Bricklayers moving and laying the blocks.
3	Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions (see Stage 5)	The bricklayers will be at significant risk from distributing the heavy blocks and the frequent lifting, bending, carrying and twisting involved while laying them. The risk will be managed by discussing with the designer (via principal contractor) to see if the foundations can be constructed using an alternative method, eg trench fill, concrete or piling. If this is not possible: use lighter blocks (or bigger blocks and handle them mechanically). Discuss the selection of these with the designer (via principal contractor); investigate the use of a lifting equipment to avoid or reduce manual handling; use plant to deliver the blocks to the to the point of use to reduce carrying; investigate whether access in the trench can be improved, eg by specifying a wider excavation or using in-trench boarding; provide gloves to improve grip and protect hands from cuts, abrasion and the blocks drying the skin; arrange training or refresher training in manual handling skills.
4	Implement the findings and record them	Meet the bricklayers to: make them aware of the MSD risk; discuss the issue; make sure that they understand what is required of them; and check they have the correct equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE).
5	Review your risk assessment and update if necessary	This part of the work is due to take three weeks. A further meeting to be held with the bricklayers after one week to check above measures working or change if needed.

Here are other tools that may help you to assess to work activities:

• Find out more about MSD risk assessment on the HSE website
• Use the Manual Handling Assessment Chart (MAC) to identify high-risk tasks
• Use the Pushing and pulling of loads: Assessment checklist to identify and assess high-risk tasks
• Use the upper-limb disorder risk filter to identify high-risk tasks
• Use the upper-limb disorder risk assessment worksheet to assess high-risk tasks