Posted By Simon Belk
Hi.

I've just been informed by a company we deal with in Holland that they can now no longer handle packages that weigh in excess of 22.7 kg, due to changes within their H&S legislation. Has anybody heard of this coming into the UK legislation anytime soon. There seem to have been rumours floating around about this for some time, but with no definite origins or dates (could be just another myth).

I can't find any info about this at present, but would be grateful if anybody has heard about this if they could let me know.

Cheers

Si

Posted By Adam Worth
It's really not as simple as maximum weight!
You can damage your back lifting a few Kg with poor technique! That's why the emphasis is on risk assessment and not fixed numbers- Every task is different!
I doubt very much that'll the change the law back.. I think it used to be a max of 35kg in the old regs (I'm not old enough to remember tho :) )

The only thing i'm upset about is the decision in the new regs to leave out information on the need to warm up before carrying out manual handling operations! (i heard a rumor about this :) )
I think there was fear that Japanese type warm ups would be seen as the requirement to comply and that this wouldn't be adopted by our culture - I think we should ensure we emphasize warm up importance in our training tho!

I wonder what new joys will be in the new regs?

Posted By Brando
Simon

I've not heard of this rule coming here but the Dutch health and safety department is ARBO.

I don't have their details but a google should turn up a contact number if you want to see if this is true for Holland ( ARBO are normally very helpful when you talk to them and they tend to be more prescriptive in their rules than our own HSE / legals requirements ).

I can't imagine anything as prescriptive as this stated weight making it into our legislation.


Brando

Posted By martin gray1
I was on a HSE seminar the other day and they said that there were no plans to alter the regs as far as they knew.
MG