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Prevention is better than cure!
Injuring your back, neck or shoulders can be life changing, but also preventable.
With an increase in back, neck and shoulder injuries it’s a timely reminder to all our apprentices and trainees to ensure you work in a safe work environment.
Housekeeping
Back injuries from slips, trips and falls can sometimes be prevented through good housekeeping. Construction waste and materials or boxes and filing can pile up quickly; make sure there is proper storage for materials and regular clean ups occur to keep the environment clean. If there area is blocked this can result in more materials being manual handled, creating greater risk of back and other injuries due to machinery not being able to move through.
Posture
Maintaining good posture is the most critical aspect of good back care. Any position held too long is not good for your back; aches and pains from prolonged working postures are nature’s way of warning you to change positions. If continuously ignored you could be vulnerable to neck, shoulder and back injuries. Correct posture is not erect but an alignment that maintains the naturally occurring curves in your spine.
Manual Handling
Incorrect lifting and carrying can result in serious long term injury. Where possible, reduce the amount of lifting by using mechanical aids.
In order to ensure your safety, always practice the following rules:
Prior to the lift
- Access the weight. If in doubt – DON’T LIFT. Ask for assistance
- Plan the lift it. If too heavy ask for assistance or use a mechanical aid
- Plan your route – are there obstacles in your way?
Lifting:
Always stand astride the load and not behind it. Point your feet in the direction of travel; have one foot behind the load and one beside the load and keep your feet a shoulder width apart.
- Bend your knees and keep your back straight
- Ensure you have a firm hold (grip with your palms, not your fingertips only).
- Keep the load close to the body
- Lift using your leg and thigh muscles to rise. Remember to avoid jerky movements
- When moving an object to either side, turn with the object by moving your feet. Keep the object close to your body and DO NOT twist your body.
- Walk, NEVER run with a load
- Use a lifting device whenever possible
- Practice these four rules for back injury
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Practice these four rules for back injury prevention.
1. WARM UP – before you start work.
2. TONE UP – with a good stretching program.
3. SIZE UP – the load. Don’t lift more than you can safely handle.
4. WISE UP – by using good lifting techniques and materials handling equipment
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Importance of notification of Incidents, Accidents and Near Misses
ACCIDENT — is an undesired event or sequence of events causing injury, ill-health or property damage.
NEAR MISS — near misses describe incidents where, given a slight shift in time or distance, injury, ill-health or damage easily could have occurred, but didn’t this round.
INCIDENT — an incident is an unplanned, undesired event that hinders completion of a task and may cause injury or other damage.
One of the best ways to avoid further accidents is to understand how an accident occurred and how to avoid that type of accident in the future. The accident investigation is a tool. The goal is not to lay blame.
The goal in an accident investigation is to:
- Satisfy legal requirements
- Find out what happened and determine immediate and underlying or root causes.
- Rethink the safety hazard.
- Introduce ways to prevent a re-occurrence
- Establish training needs.
An accident, a near miss and an incident should all be investigated.
- Accident investigations are a tool for uncovering hazards that either were missed earlier or require new controls (policies, procedures or personal protective equipment).
- Near-miss reporting and investigation identify and control safety or health hazards before they cause a more serious incident.
- Incident investigations should focus on prevention.
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Your Field Officers and OHS Coordinator
If you have any questions, concerns or need to report an incident please contact your Field Officer or 370 degrees group Group Training and OHS Manager John Taufer. (Vic) or Gary Vidler Operations Manager (Tas)
Matt Natsis
Mobile: 0429 581 049
Martin Major
Mobile: 0437 487 939
Philip Seeber
Mobile: 0417 304 289
Leanne Rizzi
Mobile: 0409 184 246
John Taufer
03 9389 9938
Mobile: 0438 588 703
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Vicky Bird
Mobile: 0419 824 065
Steven Mutton
Mobile: 0418 137 068
Gary Vidler
Mobile: 0409 934 448
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