Can someone please break the mould and realise that there is more to manual handling than lifting a perfectly sized box!

Other than maybe people, trying to find any manual handling poster, guideance, training that does not include a picture of someone lifting a box is next to impossible. Seriously anyone would think that the most hazardous things in a workplace are boxes!

Whenever you ask someone if they have had manual handling training, you will get the respone 'is that the one where we had to lift the box'. Look i'm not a boxist, I have nothing against boxes, but seriously can we start thinking outside of the box (I will see myself out). 

The biggest irony is when I worked in the cardboard industry we still had the box training despite the fact we didn't lift boxes, we only made them :)

In all seriousness when I do my induction I have to explain separately how to lift the products we make.

Ideally when you deliver manual handling training it should relate to the sort of manual handling that the operatives will be doing, be it boxes, drums, beehives or lengths of pipe. The problems is that 1) the trainer has not necessarily been briefed about the manual handling that the people actually do (sometimes even when doing in-house training) and b) training tends to take place in nice clean training rooms where the training department expect everybody to use nice clean props not lengths of dirty piper or hives full of bees!

I'm reminded to put up the old chestnut of "TILE" at this point.

Task, Individual, Load, Environment...........as the major headings that need consideration when planning a lift or as subject headings to train people.

Funnily enough, the chap at the HSE Labs in Buxton who leads on the Manual Handling Risk Assessors course agrees with you. He also is the chap who looks after the HSE MH guidance etc. He is also not a fan of a lot of the MH training overall, citing the jam donut model of a back injury as extreme and wanting to focus on the more common issues rather than the actually very low frequency / likelihood of your discs bursting like the proverbial jam donut.

The course at HSL is very good, he's the UK authority on MH and in my opinion it's an eye opener if you can get on the course.

I use the jam doughnut as well but people remember the manual handling course as the jam doughnut course and they tend to be more careful.  Yes, it is extreme but if you want to make a manual handling course interesting and effective then I feel you should start with the musculoskeletal system and how it works otherwise you're just handing down the same "bend your knees, back straight" boring stuff that they've heard a hundred times before.  The jam doughnut packs a punch, especially as we have had a couple of people who have had discs replaced.  Additionally, who doesn't want a course which hands out free doughnuts!

Originally Posted by: hilary

Additionally, who doesn't want a course which hands out free doughnuts!

I might upgrade to Krispy Kremes. Number one way to get people to any meeting or training, free food.