Written by: humantech on October 17th, 2017
Certified ergonomist Blake McGowan summarizes the findings of a recent study that measured the effects of lifting materials from various heights on low back loading and the risk of developing low back pain in this month’s Bottom Line video.
The findings are below:
- Lifting from the floor produced up to twice the amount of spinal loading than lifting from elbow height.
- Lifting from the floor magnified the effects on workers with low back pain, advanced age, those with knee osteoarthritis, and those with a high body mass index.
Binh P. T. Ngo, Amin Yazdani, Nicolette Carlan, Richard Wells. (2017). Lifting Height as the Dominant Risk Factor for Low Back Pain and Loading during Manual Materials Handling: A Scoping Review. IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors, June 2017.
