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Network Journal 2005 Issue 3 |
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Heavy weight task facing delivery staff
Supermarket home delivery people are top of the league of heavy lifters, picking up an average load of 4,000kg a day - equivalent to lifting 400 black cabs over a year!
That was the surprise result of research conducted by the HSE as part of the Better Backs Campaign. They compared the daily routines of six people, looking at the weights lifted by a nurse, a mother, a builder, a farmer, a teacher, an office worker, a baggage handler and a supermarket home delivery person.
The supermarket home delivery worker topped the table with 4,000kg a day, second was the baggage handler who typically handled 3,690kg. The teacher came bottom of the table, but still moved 200kg every day. The average weight lifted was 2,303 kg.
If the weights are projected on a year long basis, the supermarket delivery driver handles up to 960,000kg - equivalent to the weight of 400 black cabs, while even the teacher carries 48,000kg a year - the equivalent of 20 black cabs.
According to the HSE, the study was intended to show just how much people lift as part of their everyday life. Elizabeth Gyngell, Head of Better Working Environment at HSE said "As the study showed its not just a case of how much you lift but the way you lift that is important, and this needs to be everyone's responsibility so that risks are taken seriously and measures can be put in place to prevent back injury before it's too late."
More than 480,000 people in the UK suffer from work-related back injury and 74,000 new cases were reported to HSE in 2004 alone. To read the report go to: www.gnn.gov.uk
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