Geneviève Baril-Gingras

Box Handling in the Loading and Unloading of Vans

The handling of 2,306 boxes being loaded or unloaded from vans onto or from 4-wheeled trolleys by 31 handlers in a warehouse were characterized. Handling was videotaped and characterized through an analysis grid completed by three trained observers. The following execution parameters were observed: nature of the exertion applied by the upper limbs, plane and direction of the exertion, resulting displacement of the box, grip, use of the lower limbs and the back. Results show that execution parameters used by handlers vary considerably from those usually recommended or studied. For example, symmetric grips were rarely used (4%). The grip was modified during the handling of half the boxes. Significant knee flexion was rarely observed (3% of exertions). Each box was moved by applying an average of 3.5 different exertions. Exertions were mostly applied in a plane parallel to the shoulders; they were rarely executed in a strict sagittal plane (11%). The implication of these observations are discussed.

The regulation of systematic work environment in Sweden: higher ambitions in a weaker Swedish work environment system

It examines the implications of the shift from specification to process based regulation, in which attention has been increasingly directed to the means of managing OHS more systematically at a tim ...

Introduction: Inspecting Health and Safety Management and the Consequences of Restructuring in the Modern World of Work

According to ILO figures,1 despite advances in occupational medicine and safety technology, the global burden of work-related mortality, injury and disease remains huge – and far in excess of that arising from more publicized causes of harm, such as armed conflicts. The ILO estimates, for example, that some 2.2 million workers die every year as a result of work-related ill-health and injury. Of these, 350,000 deaths are attributable to accidents at work, while the rest are caused by occupational ill-health. It further estimates that there are an additional 264 million non-fatal accidents each year and 160 million people with work-related illnesses. It calculates the economic cost of this loss as worth 4 per cent of global GDP or

The handling of objects other than boxes: univariate analysis of handling techniques in a large transport company

1.25 trillion US dollars (Hämäläinen et al. 2005). It also acknowledges that the vast majority of these deaths are avoidable and preventable. Most of this work-related death, illness and injury occurs in developing and newly industrializing countries, but the figures also provide no cause for complacency among the more advanced economies. For example, in the UK, despite its more than 200 hundred years of regulation on health and safety at work, and with one of the better records internationally, there are still over 200 deaths each year from ill-health or injuries related to work. In addition, more than 20,000 people leave employment as a result of workrelated injury or illness, and more than two million suffer from ill-health, which in their view was caused or made worse by their work, leading to the loss of more than 30 million working days each year and costing the equivalent of 1–3 per cent of GDP. This pattern is repeated in other advanced economies, with many performing much worse. Moreover, these