Manual Handling Regulations Guide – Navigating the Jungle of Safe Lifting Rules and Ergonomic Risk Assessments

When it comes to manual handling regulations, have you, too, tried to find answers to apparent simple questions like:

• What are the weight limits for lifting and carrying objects in the workplace in my country?
• What do I as an employer need to be aware of (what are my legal responsibilities) when my employees engage in manual handling of loads?

– but despite all your efforts you failed to find anything concrete, relevant or useful?
– or drowned in information overload from long-winded academic documents or dry, non-concrete paragraphs in ‘legalese’?
– or simply just threw in the towel because of the complexity of what you found?

… then you’re not alone!

We too, find this jungle of directives, rules and regulations chaotic, unclear and complicated, which is why we have decided to write these pages.

• We want to help you!
• We want to make it easier for you to find what you need and to understand the rules!
• We want to contribute our part in helping to bring down the large number MSD (Musculoskeletal disorder) incidents that apparently continue to rise in Europe (perhaps also worldwide) despite the existence of and efforts to implement manual handling regulations. (reference)

Therefore, this section of our website is dedicated to providing free and hopefully helpful information on the directives, standards and regulations on the manual handling of loads and the recommended ergonomic assessments and tools related to lifting and carrying.

This particular page is the ‘mother’ page of this section.

Thus in an effort to provide more concrete help with how much a person must lift and carry at work, OSHA’s agency ‘sister’, NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), has created a math based lifting formula called the NIOSH Lifting Equation.

However, the NIOSH Lifting Equation is rather technical to use. It’s not enough to just feed it a number or two and then it spits out a result. You need to put in all the variables (and there are many) to the specific lifting action. If you’re a math lover, it’s heaven. If you’re not, it’s well, not so heavenly.

Anyway, what this NIOSH Lifting Equation does, is that it establishes the maximum load under ideal circumstances to be 51 pound (roughly 23 kilos). And then all depending on the circumstances making the lifting action more strenuous and risky, the recommended weight of the load is then reduced (that’s what all the variables are for).

But again, the weight limits that you get when using this equation are only recommendations by NIOSH. They are guidelines only. Not the law.

The law that you have to follow is the general one, the The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and more specifically the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1), which states that:

Each employer —
(1) shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;
(2) shall comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated under this Act.

(b) Each employee shall comply with occupational safety and health standards and all rules, regulations, and orders issued pursuant to this Act which are applicable to his own actions and conduct.

So even though there aren’t any specific rules to follow, you have to follow the overall law. As OSHA themselves states: 

“Even if there are no guidelines specific to your industry, as an employer you still have an obligation under the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) to keep your workplace free from recognized serious hazards, including ergonomic hazards. OSHA will cite for ergonomic hazards under the General Duty Clause or issue ergonomic hazard alert letters, where appropriate, as part of its overall enforcement program. OSHA encourages employers to implement effective programs or other measures to reduce ergonomic hazards and associated MSDs.”

To perform your own ergonomic risk assessment for manual handling operations in order to discover:

• whether or not what you need to lift is too heavy
• or to find the maximum weight limit for a certain lifting task

… you can explore either our NIOSH Lifting Equation page or our Lifting Calculators page to find a link to the exact tool that is right for you.

If you want more information on manual handling from OSHA, you can follow these links and read more about:

• Ergonomics, MSD and lifting hazards
• Heavy Lifting
• Pushing, Pulling and Carrying
• OSHA Proper Lifting Techniques: Safe Lifting Ergonomics
• An employer / employee guide on Material Handling and Storing
• OSHA’s free poster that informs workers of their rights under the OSH Act. 

• Factsheet 73 – Hazards and risks associated with manual handling of loads in the workplace
• Causes and prevention of Musculoskeletal disorders / MSD
• Publication on MSD in Europe, lots of facts and tables
• A publication on the result of the enactment of Directive 90/269EEC challenges of actual implementation in the different European countries / member state. To download this document in your own language follow this link. For the English version, go here
• Evaluation of the Practical Implementation of the EU Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Directives in EU Member States

As you can see we do not have information on national guidelines for all countries in the EU, Europe or worldwide. We have included those countries that we could find material about online, and those countries whose authorities responded to our inquiries for their national guidelines and models.

We will however, continue to build on this manual handling resource as we believe it may help many people find what they need in this jungle of material handling regulations.

And if you, as a reader, have information for a specific country not included here, you are most welcome to contact us