Manual material handling (MMH) involves any action or movement requiring workers to lift, lower, push, pull, carry, throw, move, hold or restrain objects or equipment. Bending, stooping, squatting, kneeling, reaching and crouching may be involved in many manual handling of objects and/or tools. Manual handling tasks where excessive force is accompanied with awkward postures increase the risk for soft tissue injury, especially when performed for an extended duration and/or are repeated every few minutes.

Although risk for back injury is a major concern and priority for prevention when dealing specifically with manual materials handling, numerous areas of the human body in addition to the back are exposed to ergonomic injury risk factors (i.e. force, awkward posture, frequency, duration). Many aspects of manual materials handling can increase ergonomic risk. To minimize risk of injury, decreased productivity, and inefficiencies, ergonomics should be considered.

To schedule an industrial ergonomic evaluation (tasks not related to office or computer work) visit Industrial Ergonomics and complete the appropriate questionnaire to request a formal evaluation.