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Posted By Malcolm Earl
At present the company I work for allows some of its employees to wear back support belts. As a manual handling instructor I have reservations about their use in manual handling tasks. I have searched the web for information but much of it seems to be inconclusive. Does any one have positive yes or no information on their use. Or any up to date information sites on the web.
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Posted By John D Crosby
Malcolm
I also believe that back support belts present problems however I have never been able to find a definitive answer. The HSE Air Transport Information Sheet No2 is the nearest comment I can find. This essentially says that back belts are not proven and the is no evidence as to which type should be used when. Having experimented with belts some years ago when working with brewery distribution crews my conclusion was that they actually created problems related to bad posture and encouraged bad practice. This work was carried out with union safety reps who agreed with the findings. Some years ago I noticed that workers in Florida USA where all wearing back support belts fitted with braces but two years later very few workers were wearing them. Not sure of the reasons for the drop off in use but I suspect that they were creating problems.
John C
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Posted By Chris Pollington
Hi Malcolm,
I raised this question myself sometime ago as I was being told by a supplier that belts should be treated as PPE and made widely available. I was not convinced by his arguments but agreed to see him to discuss it.
During my research I was pointed to a very good article in the Feb 02 issue of Tollys health & safety at work magazine, the article looked at belts in detail.
It concluded that they may be of some use for those with an exsisting back problem, but there were no tangible benefits for those without, and pointed out there could be negative effects like giving the worker a false sense of security.
I also found an American web site called Personal MD, and a report called "back belts under Fire" I don't have the web address, as the hard copy I printed does not have it on.
A search on the name may find it though.
After discussing it with our Occupational Health Doctor I decided to purchase a small number and make them available to those with a known back problem, the response has been positive, but mainly due to the fact that those people with them are capable of managing their problem themselves and see the back belt as part of that process and not the cure all that some suppliers would have you believe.
I hope that is of some use.
Chris
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Posted By Ian Mycroft
There is a belt available that has bones fitted which are pointed and curve in toward the body. The idea being that the points dig in (not enough to cause injury, I hope) if the wearer adopts an unsafe lifting posture, so giving warning that the posture needs to be corected. I don't now how effective these are but I am considering trying one out with an employee who is having back trouble. The supplier for these is Posturite UK Ltd.
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Posted By Doug Russell
There's lots of stuff about back belts on the NIOSH site. The main conclusion is that they don't offer protection against Manual Handling injuries. See for example http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/backfs.html
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