L8: Tools for Use in Industry Flashcards
Why is the important to assess risk?
- Legislation
- Prevent injury
If there are any tasks that could be improved for safer manual task
When should we assess risk?
- New equipment
- New procedures
- Hazard reports
- In response to incidence
- New information comes to hand
What is the risk management process?

What are the 3 fundamentals of risk assessment?
- Hazard has been identified
- What are the consequences
- Minor first aid
- Serious injury or illness
- Fatality
- Probability: likelihood of harm occurring
- Certain (mostly)
- Very likely (probably
- Possible (might occur)
- Unlikely (could happen)
- Rare (may happen in exception circumstances)
What are the 3 consequences in the fundamentals of risk assessment?
- Minor first aid
- Serious injury or illness
- Fatality
What are the 5 probability in the fundamentals of risk assessment?
Probability: likelihood of harm occurring
- Certain (mostly)- Exposed to risk daily
- Very likely (probably
- Possible (might occur)
- Unlikely (could happen)
- Rare (may happen in exception circumstances)
Which 2 tasks are risker?
Need to understand the context (hard to make a decision)

What are the 3 levels of controlling risk?

What are 5 tool selections in tools for use?
There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’
No tool is perfect – they all have limitations
Tool selection depends on
- The reason for the assessment
- Who is performing the assessment
- What is the budget of the project
- How will the information be used
- Clinical reasoning
- Force, repetition, posture risk assessment
What are 6 tools for the assessment of risk?
EXAM QUESTION
- ManTRA (Manual Task Risk Assessment)
- REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) Postural analysis tool (health care industry).
- RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment)
- Postural analysis for upper limb.
- Liberty Mutual Tables
- NIOSH lift equation
- UTAH Back Compression force calculator
What are 3 tools for the assessment of risk?
EXAM QUESTION
- ManTRA (Manual Task Risk Assessment)
- RAPID ENTIRE ____ ASSESSMENT
- REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment)
- RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment)
- Liberty Mutual Tables
What are 6 equipments to bring to site for assessing risk?
- Tape measure
- Stop Watch
- Camera
- Scales
- Force Gauge
- Pen and graph paper
What are 4 features of ManTRA?

- Provides an ability to assess for body regions: lower limbs, back, neck/shoulder and arm/wrist/hand
- Considers total time a task is performed through the day (exposure)
- Considers time for which the task is performed without a break (duration)
- Considers 5 characteristics of the task: cycle time, force, speed, awkwardness and vibration

- Train crew required to load supply bag onto loco each shift
- Bag weighs between 15-20kg
- Up to 4 bags are lifted per shift
- Bags must be lifted to a height of 1750 to 2230
- Forward (horizontal) reach of up to 600mm is required
Postures and load affected (height and weight of bag)
What are 4 features of ManTRA ofr the scenario?

What is the ManTRA blanket rule for 1 rep of task?
1 rep of task = Cycle task 1
What is the cumulative risk for the ManTRA?

What are 5 characteristics of REBA?
Rapid entire body assessment –> designed for nurses (for postures)
- A postural analysis system
- The body is divided into segments and coded individually with reference to movement planes
- A scoring system for muscle activity caused by static, dynamic, rapid changing or unstable postures
- Coupling is important in the handling
- Provides an action level with a level of urgency

What is the coupling score for REMA?
Is the object being lifted designed well (suitable to be lifted)
What is the problem with the REMA?
Not sensitive around repetition but postures
What is scoring for REMA?
- 1 = negligible risk
- 1 or 3 = low risk, change may be needed
- 4 to 7 = medium risk, further investigation, change soon
- 8 to 10 = high risk, investigate and implement change
- 11+ = very high risk, implement change
What is the RULA?

What is the Liberty Mutual Tables?
- Provided maximum acceptable weights and forces for up to 10, 25, 50, 75, 90 percent of the male and female population
- Liberty mutual tables
- Provides male and female population percentages capable of performing manual material handling tasks without over exertion, rather than the maximum acceptable weights and forces.
What are 4 characteristics of the Business Tool?
Tables were
- Developed to assist controlling costs associated with manual handling
- Provide the user with an objective risk assessment of manual handling
- Provides a foundation for a solution
- Helping recognise risk factors associated with manual handling activity
- Helping make good business decisions on implementing cost effective ergonomics
- Basic training in
- Ergonomics
- Manual handling task analysis and evaluation
What are 9 characteristics of population percentage tables?
- Lifting tasks ending below knuckle height
- Lifting tasks ending between knuckle and shoulder height
- Lifting tasks above shoulder height
- Lowering tasks beginning below knuckle height
- Lowering tasks beginning between knuckle and shoulder height
- Lowering tasks beginning above shoulder height
- Pushing tasks: initial and sustained forces
- Pulling tasks: initial and sustained forces
- Carrying tasks
- Males: knuckle height 31’’ or 79cm / shoulder height 57’’ or 145cm
- Females: knuckle height 28’’ or 71cm / shoulder height 53’’ or 135cm
What are 3 characteristics of population percentage criteria?
- Design manual tasks for greater than 75% of the female work population – best protection from manual handling injuries
- Studies have shown 2/3rds of low back claims from low percentage tasks (tasks capable of being performed by a small percentage of the population) can be prevented if the tasks are designed to accommodate at 75% of the female work population
- Tasks having population percentages of less then 10% should be prioritised for redesign
What are 4 uses of the tables for Liberty Mutual Tables?
Table 3M: male population for lifting tasks ending above shoulder height
- Weight of object = 20kg (44lbs)
- Hand distance = 60cm (24 inches)
- The distance from the front of the body to the hands. Normally half the width of the object being handled unless the object purposely held away
- Lift/lower distance = 120cm (48inches)
- The vertical distance the hands must travel
- Frequency = 8 hours
- Defined as the average time between handling individual objects

How do you use the Liberty Mutual Tables in reverse?

What are 5 limitations of the Liberty Mutual Tables?
- Measurements seldom correspond exactly to the data points used in the tables
- Does not consider twisting with lifting
- Does not consider techniques: semi squat v stoop
- Does not consider hand holds
- Can not be used for one handed lifts
What is risk and redesign for the ManTRA, REBA and Liberty Mutual Tables?

What is the summary of ManTRA and REBA?
ManTRA and REBA Provide semi-quantitative risk to the whole body dependent on the skill and bias of the assessor with
- The ManTRA relying on subjective measures of force and postures
- The REBA focussing heavily on postures with minimal emphasis on the effect of frequency and cumulative loading
What is the summary of Liberty Mutual Tables?
Provides objective risk assessment (quantitative) for manual tasks
- Population percentage for manual tasks
- For design purposes only
- Some interpolation required
What is the summary for risk assessment tools?
- Tools do not identify all possible hazards with a task
- Tools form part of a risk management process
- Tools do no replace clinical reasoning but can be used to semiquantify it.
- Should highlight other risk factors even when they are not in the tool assignment
- Document further Ax required