Lifting heavy stuff

[zag]

I've never heard of all this health and safety stuff before I started working in a school.

I can understand someone who is pregnant not lifting stuff, that's just common sense!

But risk assessments? Lifting training, County council rules on weights!!!! good god. I just get on and do it

[witch]

Me too - I've been in schools for nearly 8 years - never had any training of any sort on manual handling, health and safety or that sort of thing.
The only thing I have done is complained about my own safety: I am in a little server room with no exit and no opening window,with a fan that only comes on with the light (so my server overheats when I am not there) inside another room that has the photocopier in it. I am concerned about the copier as I have seen them go up and the flames shoot out for several feet, which would prevent me getting out as it is just to one side of the route to the door. But the county Health and Safety officer said that was fine as long as I kept both doors open!!

[torledo]

As a follow on I work under North Yorks County Council (ish) rules. on their manual lifting training handout matrix, for a woman the threshhold loads for lifting from the floor is 7kg at your feet, 3.5kg if you have to reach/stretch. ( 10kg/5kg males.) Doesnt say you cant but you need assessment. Post the training weighed my site to site toolkit for a laff!

presumable having to reach means not being able to bend your knees i.e using the strength in your arms to lift something up. In which case 3.5kg seems reasonable for a woman, although there can't be many IT equipment that comes in at under that weight.

I've regularly lifted 20kg printers and the like up flights of stairs....it's close to the limit of what i can lift and transport safely over an extended distance. So a big white box pedestal server (which would be about 15kg's) i'd have no problems with...similarly 19" CRT monitors are quite straightforward although a bit awkward due to their bulk.

Although all the items above i would have thought people should get training on, as they are not straightforward lifts.

Anything above 25kg's and i'd defintely seek help. Wouldn't even consider lifting a big HP printer and i shouldn't lift 16 disk storage array on my own....as those things tend to weigh in excess of 40kgs. Unfortunately i have lifted an ibm storage array into a rack on my own....and i'm still feeling the effects. It was immensely heavy.

[laserblazer]

If you are ever waiting for an important phone call simply carry a 19" monitor up several flights of stairs. You can guarantee the phone will ring at the most inconvenient moment. Alternatively, climb a ladder to access a switch cabinet or projector.

[beeswax]

I've never heard of all this health and safety stuff before I started working in a school.

I can understand someone who is pregnant not lifting stuff, that's just common sense!

But risk assessments? Lifting training, County council rules on weights!!!! good god. I just get on and do it

There's also a legal aspect to this; have the council provided the training? Yes, they're in the clear; No, and they can have the pants sued off them.
Then there's the personal aspect. As someone who suffers from a prolapsed disc and who can "seize" up quite painfully from time to time, knowing how to lift a dead weight is important. Discs don't just "go", you have to work on them over time, and lifting things incorrectly is one way to wear them down.