'Proof' of straightforward risk assessments presented at printing seminar

HSE Press Release: E166:04 - 2 December 2004

A free Health and Safety Executive (HSE) training event on assessing manual handling risks in the printing sector was warmly received by industry attendees earlier this month.

The event in Bristol was hosted by the Health and Safety Commission's Printing Industries Advisory Committee (PIAC) and was attended by around 80 employers and workers from printing and publishing industries in the South-West.

James Barrett and Maureen Kingman from HSE's Manufacturing Sector introduced the seminar and spoke about some of the major health and safety issues currently facing the printing industry. This was followed by a demonstration of HSE's Manual Handling Assessment Chart (MAC) tool by ergonomist Matthew Birtles of the Health and Safety Laboratory.

MAC, a web-based tool, simplifies risk assessments by showing how manual handling tasks can be broken down into their component parts and scored using a 'traffic light' system. It helps identify the riskier elements of a task so that effort to reduce the potential of injury can be better targeted.

Attendees' comments on the presentation included 'very practical', 'useful', and 'relevant and easy to follow'. One attendee, Robert Dooley of Brissco Signs and Graphics, said the demonstration had given him 'the wherewithal to carry out manual handling risk assessments in-house' - later adding that he cancelled a visit from a health and safety consultant because he now felt he could - 'go it alone'.

Maureen Kingman, who has specific responsibility for printing at HSE said: "Manual handling was chosen as the theme of the seminar because of the increasing numbers of manual handling injuries in printing. HSE also recognise that many printers need help to get started on manual handling risk assessment. The MAC tool takes the mystique out of the process and is also easy to use. It is free to download from HSE's web site and there are online video case studies to take people through the process."

In the last year, HSE received reports of around 500 manual handling injuries from the printing and publishing sectors - 34% of all reported injuries from those sectors. If we are to make inroads into reducing ill-health in these industries, it makes sense to start here."

The MAC tool is available free at www.hse.gov.uk/msd/mac/index.htm

Notes to editors

1. The seminar took place on 11 November 2004 at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Bristol and was organised as part of HSC's PIAC open meeting. The open meetings allow direct communication and provide a mechanism for sharing best practice between HSE and its target audience, in this case, the print industry at large.

2. PIAC is a tripartite committee, made up of representatives of the CBI, TUC and HSE and is an example of HSE working with and through its partners to fulfil the Health and Safety Commission's 'Strategy for workplace health and safety in Great Britain to 2010 and beyond'[80kb] .

3. Reducing the incidence of ill health by 20% by 2010 is one of the targets in HSE's Public Service Agreement with the Government.

4. Further information is available to the printing industry on www.hse.gov.uk/printing

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