Manual Handling
Updated: Dec 20, 2021

Manual handling injuries are amongst the most common injuries. ACC receives over 50,000 work-related claims for lifting, carrying and strain injuries each year. This safety talk will provide some tips to help avoid these unnecessary injuries.
What is a Manual Handling Injury?
Manual handling injuries can be caused immediately (acute such as broken
bones, cuts, sprains) or slowly over time by harming your musculoskeletal
system (bones and muscles) and the injury gets worse over time (chronic injury).
Manual handling techniques include the lift, push, pull motions or carrying
of objects. Workers can often assume awkward positions and unbalanced
postures, which can lead to soft tissue damage.
Common injuries with manual handling is strained or sprained muscle tissue and
/ or elbow joint, lower back pain. These types of injury mainly occur due to poor technique
or handling of items that are too heavy for the worker.
