A NEW WAY TO HELP PROTECT WORKERS' BACKS

HSE press release E161:03 - 29 August 2003

The Manual Handling Assessment Chart (MAC) to help managers identify high risk manual handling jobs has been launched today by the Health and Safety Executive.

The website http://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/mac was also launched today. Employers, safety reps, health professionals and members of the public should find this site useful as it provides up to date information on health and safety relating to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) - the general name for conditions such as back pain and RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury).

Over a million people a year suffer from a MSD caused or made worse by work and in 2001/2002 it is estimated that about 37% of over three day injuries reported were due to manual handling.

The MAC is designed to help make easy and accurate assessments of three different types of operation: lifting, carrying and team handling. For each task it helps you go through the risk factors and record a risk rating - green, amber, red or purple - on a score sheet. The rating indicates which jobs are more likely to put workers health at a greater risk.

Graham Reeves, part of BP's Health and Safety team, was one of the first to try out the MAC. "We were pleased to help develop and use this new tool based on HSE's current guidance. I found that the MAC was not only quick and effective but also helped me to decide the level of risk associated with each factor.

"The MAC allows you to 'score' an assessment which means you can rank individual assessments, decide which are the greatest risks and take action on these first."

Richard Wheatcroft Senior Environmental Health Officer at Chesterfield Borough Council, said: "The MAC has proved to be an invaluable tool in assessing manual handling activities. The exercise has really consolidated officers' competence in assessing manual handling activities. The MAC's success lies in its straight-forward approach."

Malcolm Darvill, Head of Ergonomics policy at HSE said: "On the website you can test out your own practical risk assessment ability by scoring some real manual handling tasks and then comparing your scores with an ergonomics expert. The website also offers users practical tips to reduce risks of MSD injury."

The website also contains case studies, main guidance relating to MSD, links to other useful sites, research on MSD and answers questions on issues such as risk assessment, display screen equipment use and manual handling. The information on the site will be updated regularly.

Notes to editors

1. Graham Reeves is an Occupational Hygienist with British Petroleum's HSE Group Resource.

2. The development of the MAC involved extensive usability testing by HSE and Local Authority Inspectors. Richard Wheatcroft, is a Senior Environmental Health Officer at Chesterfield Borough Council who co-ordinated the Derbyshire Evaluation Group.

3. The MAC forms part of HSC's Priority Programme on MSDs. The Priority Programme aims to reduce the incidence of work-related illness involving musculoskeletal disorders, and reduce the number of working days lost due to these disorders. HSE aims to achieve the targets in the Programme by communicating effectively with all stakeholders (such as employers, employees and their safety representatives, and health professionals) to encourage ownership of the plan and its outputs, keeping them informed, and giving them opportunities to contribute, revising the strategy as necessary.

4. The MAC was originally designed for HSE and Local Authority inspectors. However, employers, safety representatives, safety officers and others, may find it useful. HSE undertook reliability and usability studies to ensure that it was suitable for public use. The MAC does not provide a full 'suitable and sufficient' risk assessment and must be used in conjunction ISBN 0 7176 2415 3 with the assessment procedure laid out in the guidance on the Manual Handling Operations Regulations. Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992: guidance on regulations (L23) £8 from HSE Books http://books.hse.gov.uk A revised version of the guidance will be available in spring 2004.

5. The MSD webpages form part of the MSDPP (Musculoskeletal Disorders Priority Programme) communication strategy to increase awareness, promote new guidance and set out the key messages on what MSD are and how best to deal with them. Their aim is to get across this information in a way that is informative, useful and suitable for any audience.

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