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Hazardous manual handling – manufacturing safety basics

This video provides useful information on what hazardous manual handling is, how to identify risks and where to start with reducing or eliminating the risks in your manufacturing workplace.

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Wood manufacturing

These are the most common injuries and hazards for people working in the wood manufacturing industry, as shown by injury claims. The wood manufacturing industry includes log sawmilling, resawn and dressed timber, and wood products such as furniture, doors, structural fittings and joinery.

Safety solutions

WorkSafe expects employers to have safety solutions in place to protect workers from the most common sources of injury.

Hazards and solutions

Hazard 1
Kickback jams knots and foreign objects in timber
Develop and implement appropriate policies and procedures for the safe use of equipment (eg inspection, wood moisture content control, automatic or mechanical feed-in, protecting the operator - including those in a booth, saw tuning, sharpening and planned maintenance, speed and feed rate control systems, and saw bearing maintenance).

10 per cent of the injuries were to a persons sholder.

9 per cent of the injuries were to a persons arm.

30 per cent of the injuries were to a persons hand / fingers.
Hazard 2
Lifting and carrying
Provide appropriate mechanical aids and equipment (eg tugs, cranes, vacuum lifters, hoists, height adjustable palletising equipment, roller conveyors and trolleys with large serviceable castors to move material) and ensure they are used properly and maintained in accordance with manufacturer specifications.

Design work to ensure work is done between shoulder and waist height to keep employees working in an upright postures as much as possible. Achieve this by raising, lowering or moving either the employee or the work.

Train employees in the selection and use of any mechanical equipment and aids and safe handling methods.

Ensure employees are not exposed to repetitive work for long periods (eg by using job rotation, work variation, providing sit-stand stools and anti-fatigue mats) or work that requires a significant amount of high force.

10 per cent of the injuries were to a persons sholder.

9 per cent of the injuries were to a persons arm.

5 per cent of the injuries were to a persons abdomen.

7 per cent of the injuries were to a persons knee.

16 per cent of the injuries were to a persons back.
Hazard 3
Noise
Ensure employees are not exposed to noise that exceeds the exposure standard.

Arrange for a noise assessment if employees are exposed to excessive noise (eg workers have to raise their voices to communicate over a distance of one metre) and there is uncertainty as to whether employees exposure may have exceeded the noise exposure standard.

Eliminate or minimise the source of noise (eg enclose or isolate noisy machinery, reduce vibration, use barriers to absorb and screens to block the direct path of sound, use silencers on air exhausts, exhaust pneumatics out of the area, buy the quietest tools/machinery available).

Place warning signs in areas of excessive and continual noise (eg where employees exposure is likely to exceed the exposure standard).

Warn other workers nearby that you will be undertaking noisy work and advise them to move away or wear hearing protection.

Provide hearing equipment, ensure it is worn at all times, and provide employees with audiometric testing. Employers should provide a choice of different types of hearing protection appropriate to the noise level in the workplace.

8 per cent of the injuries were to a persons ear.
Hazard 4
Slips trips and falls
Ensure all work areas and access points are clean, level, well-lit and in good repair.

Ensure materials, tools and equipment are handled, positioned, and stored carefully to avoid tripping hazards.

Remove unwanted wood product waste regularly from working site so it does not accumulate.

7 per cent of the injuries were to a persons knee.
Hazard 5
Using machinery and equipment
Provide physical barrier guards. Guard areas where material can fly out of the machine (eg nip points, cutting points and moving belts).

Provide appropriate guarding and ensure it is maintained in accordance with manufacturer specifications (eg circular saws have spring loaded moveable blade guards).

Ensure router benches and moulders are designed so guards are interlocked to the plant and the cutters can't operate (including during run-down) when the guard isn't in place.

Ensure machinery has completely stopped and can't be unintentionally re-energised during repair, unblocking, maintenance, or cleaning.

Develop and implement appropriate safe work procedures (eg don't use gloves where there's a risk they will catch on moving machinery). Ensure emergency stops are located within reach of operators.

Ensure machinery and equipment has appropriate safety functions (eg built-in inching properties and cut-outs, provision for conveyors to be able to inch backwards).

Ensure employees wear suitable clothing (eg overalls, long trousers, long sleeve shirt, and safety boots).

Ensure employees operating machinery are not suffering fatigue or loss of concentration (eg monitor the pace of work, shift arrangements, high temperatures).

9 per cent of the injuries were to a persons arm.

30 per cent of the injuries were to a persons hand / fingers.

'If you are injured at work' poster

Employers must display an 'if you are injured at work' poster in every workplace. You can download and print a poster in English as well as Arabic, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.

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Other manufacturers

OHS responsibilities and duties

Consultation

Health and safety representatives (HSRs)

Hazardous manual handling – manufacturing safety basics

You might also need

Insurance, claims and recovery

Employer obligations

Workplace resources

Understand WorkSafe

Injury hotspots

Wood manufacturing

Safety solutions

Hazards and solutions

Kickback jams knots and foreign objects in timber

Lifting and carrying

Noise

Slips trips and falls

Using machinery and equipment

'If you are injured at work' poster

Gendered violence.

It comes in many forms.

News and updates

More than 120 employers fined for safety breaches in 2022

More than 150 limbs or digits lost in workplace incidents

Let's put 2022 safely behind us

Information

Services

About WorkSafe

Contact

Other manufacturers

OHS responsibilities and duties

Consultation

Health and safety representatives (HSRs)

Hazardous manual handling – manufacturing safety basics

You might also need

Insurance, claims and recovery

Employer obligations

Workplace resources

Understand WorkSafe

﻿﻿﻿Injury hotspots

Wood manufacturing

Safety solutions

Hazards and solutions

Kickback jams knots and foreign objects in timber

Lifting and carrying

Noise

Slips trips and falls

Using machinery and equipment

'If you are injured at work' poster

Gendered violence.

It comes in many forms.

News and updates

More than 120 employers fined for safety breaches in 2022

More than 150 limbs or digits lost in workplace incidents

Let's put 2022 safely behind us

Injury hotspots