Manual Lifting Standards: Ergonomic Assessment and Proposals for Redesign for Industrial Applications

Abstract

Low back pain is likely the most common problem in workplaces and causes a huge economic impact on individuals, families, communities, industry and government. From an ergonomic point of view, the main risk factors were found to have been the physical load in manual materials handling and inadequate working postures, which are frequently observed in housekeepers, office workers, construction workers, or workers in the area of nursing. Furthermore, the lesions resulting from manual handling represent a huge problem for industrial transport and storage. The task of lifting, as part of manual materials handling, has been shown to represent the greatest risk. For this reason, this work presents fundamental guidelines in the field of ergonomics and, in particular, one of the most relevant tools for evaluating the risk implied in lifting heavy loads: The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Lifting Equation, along with strategies to prevent or reduce this risk through three case studies related to industrial jobs within the context of Mexico. These evaluations are oriented towards eliminating or at least reducing the presence of physical ergonomic risk factors. For this reason, controls of an administrative or engineering type, adapted to each case, are also presented, thus constituting an effective tool for the prevention of low back pain in industry.