Government agencies such as the Health & Safety Executive or Customs & Excise are often seen as the big stick enforcing and policing the various regulations within which business must work.

However, one vital function they perform is that of producing advice and guidance to prevent problems before they occur. One such item should be of interest to companies in this district.

New guidance on manual handling in textiles has been published by the Health & Safety Commission's: Textile Industry Advisory Committee (TEXIAC).

The guidance is intended to help employers in the textile manufacturing and clothing industry reduce or eliminate risks to employees from manual handling.

Work in the textile industry requires extensive manual handling tasks and, unfortunately, these often contribute to musculo-skeletal injuries, especially to the lower back and shoulders.

Manual handling is a major source of textile injuries, accounting for over 25 per cent of reported 'over three-day injuries'. As many back injuries probably go unreported, this figure may represent only a fraction of the overall problem.

Injuries are not confined to workers engaged in obviously strenuous tasks such as handling bales; those doing lighter jobs also suffer, for example: repetitive tasks with smaller loads, such as loading packages onto creels.

The injuries are costly to employers as well as painful for the individuals involved. Many of the solutions described are simple, cost-effective measures which were developed following a project by ergonomists from HSE's Health and Safety Laboratory.

The case studies serve as examples of good practice which can be applied by other employers throughout the textile industry.

Paul Twiddy is information manager at Business Link Bradford and District.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.