Manual handling is an integral part of our workplaces, encompassing tasks such as lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling or moving objects.

While these activities may seem routine, improper techniques or unsafe practices can pose significant risk to people health and can lead to musculoskeletal injuries or long-term physical strain.

From tracking reporting data for accidents and incident, manual handling injuries are found to be the second most common workplace injury across all workplaces, after injuries as a result of same level slips, trips and falls.

Manual handling injuries can occur almost anywhere in the workplace, but heavy manual labour, awkward postures, repetitive movements of arms, legs and back or previous/existing injury can increase the risk. However, many manual handling type injuries can be caused by smaller tasks like packing, typing, cleaning, operating machinery or equipment.