Manual handling happens wherever people are at work. Any time you use your body to move an object, you are manual handling. In an office, a factory, a warehouse, a shop, or anywhere else you work.

This course has four aims.

• To show you the dangers of back pain, how it is caused, and what you can do to prevent it.
• To get you assessing the risk in your own handling tasks.
• To demonstrate good handling technique.
• And to make you aware of your own handling habits.

• Manual handling is moving anything where human force is required.
• It is not only lifting, and it is not only heavy loads.
• It means using your body to exert force. To lift, lower, push, pull, carry, move, hold, restrain, or set something down.
• And the load does not have to be an object. It can be inanimate, like a box, or animate, like a person or an animal.

Everyday manual handling is far more common than most people think.

• Lifting boxes of paper.
• Carrying a shopping bag.
• Pushing a trolley.
• Unloading a car.
• Stacking shelves.
• Lifting a child.
• Moving furniture.

All of it is manual handling, and all of it carries risk.

• Manual handling causes a large number of workplace injuries every year.
• It can injure your hands, your arms and your neck, and dropping a load can injure your feet.
• But the majority of manual handling injuries affect the back.
• Sometimes that is a cut or a bruise. Far more often, it is a muscle strain or a ligament sprain.

As an employee, you have duties of your own.

• You must co-operate with your employer on manual handling matters.
• You must not behave in a way that is likely to endanger yourself or anyone else.
• You must use mechanical aids correctly.
• You must report dangerous work activities, and any defects in the workplace, the systems, or the equipment.
• And you must tell your employer about any physical impairment that could give rise to risk.