Safety First News
Safe Lifts Made Easier With Updated Lifting Calculator
September 17, 2017
For more than 20 years, safety professionals and employers have been using the Applications Manual for the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation to assess associated risks of worker lifting movements. Now, the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) unveils a mobile application (app) based on the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation (RNLE), a safe lifting equation internationally recognized by safety professionals. The app is called NLE Calc.
According to the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) cause about a third of work-related injuries, which contribute to missed workdays and roughly $45 billion and $54 billion annually.
The NLE Calc app establishes a score based on user-provided values related to aspects of the lifting task. The app offers recommendations to improve the score by modifying the lifting task, theoretically reducing the risk of back injury.
Recommendations to help reduce the risk of lifting tasks include:
- Bring the load closer to the body.
- Reducing the weight of the load (if possible).
- Raise the load to the height of the waist before lifting.
- Eliminate or reduce twisting motions while lifting.
- Reduce the distance the load is lifted.