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Manual Tasks Risk Assessment Tool (ManTRA) V2.0

The document that you will download describes the revised version of an audit tool developed by Robin Burgess-Limerick PhD CPE, School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland; Roxanne Egeskov CPE, Senior Principal Advisor Ergonomics, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland; Leon Straker, PhD, School of Physiotherapy, Curtin University of Technology, and Clare Pollock, PhD, School of Psychology, Curtin University of Technology. The development of the tool was undertaken as part of a research project funded by Workcover Queensland (QComp) and the National Health and Medical Research Council through a Translational Grant in Injury.

ManTRA, as originally developed, was designed to assist DWHS inspectors in auditing workplaces across all industries for compliance with the Queensland Manual Tasks Advisory Standard. A second aim was to make an assessment of the exposure to musculoskeletal risk factors associated with manual tasks in the workplace. For workplace use the assessment should be undertaken by a team including employees who perform the task and staff responsible for manual task risk management. The physical risk component of the revised tool combines information about the total time for which a person performs the task in a typical day (exposure) and the typical time for which the task is performed without break (duration) with an assessment, for each of four body regions, of five characteristics of the task (cycle time, force, speed, awkwardness and vibration). The assessment of each characteristic is for the task as a whole, rather than individual task elements. The assessment is for a specific person performing a task, rather than people generally. The aim is for the assessor to make a judgment regarding the severity of each characteristic of the task at each region for the task as a whole. The text which corresponds to the numeric codes is provided as a guide only.

The codes for each characteristic describing the task are then combined to assess the extent of exposure to each of the direct risk factors identified in the Queensland Manual Tasks Advisory Standard. The risk factors are assessed independently for each region because a task only needs to overload one body structure to cause injury. A maximum score for exertion for any body region, or a high combined exertion and awkwardness score, indicates a high risk of acute injury; while a high risk of cumulative injury is indicated by the presence of multiple risk factors for a particular body region. Suggested thresholds are provided to aid the user in making judgments about the need for action.

Download ManTRA V2.0 (.pdf file - you will need Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to read the file - you can download Acrobat from www.adobe.com)

 

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