NIOSH Lifting Equation

Low Back Injury Prevention and the NIOSH Lifting Equation

Course Summary:
Low back injuries represent a significant problem to industry.  As the Federal Agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recognized this, and in 1993 developed an evaluation tool called the NIOSH Lifting Equation.  The equation is fairly straightforward requiring the user to input a variety of information describing the lifting task (e.g. how far the load is away from the body, how frequently the lifts are performed, how far off of the ground the load is, how much the person needs to twist their spine to perform the lifting).  The equation then provides an evaluation of this lifting task and describes the relative risk of the task.

Course Highlights:

• Introduction to basic spine biomechanics
• Concepts of basic statics
• Factors of low back injury
• Risk calculation

Instructor Gary Mirka 3004 Black Engineering Phone: 515-294-8661 mirka@iastate.edu

Dr. Gary Mirka is currently a Department Chair of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineeringat Iowa State University.  He teaches such topics as Applied Ergonomics and Work Design, Occupational Biomechanics, and other ergonomics courses.  He also manages the Ergonomics Lab at ISU to conduct research in the areas of occupational biomechanics, occupational safety, human performance augmentation, cognitive ergonomics, and human computer interactions (HCI).His research interests are in the area of occupational safety and ergonomics with particular emphasis on spine biomechanics, low back injury prevention and ergonomic intervention effectiveness research.  His research efforts have taken him into the construction, agriculture, commercial fishing, and furniture manufacturing industries.  Dr. Mirka was the recipient of the 1993 Volvo Award for Low Back Pain Research.

Course Materials:
Application Manual for the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation, (Free PDF Manual from CDC)

Assessment:
No assessment for this course.

Technical Requirements:

• High speed internet connection (DSL/cable modem or higher)
• Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari
• Adobe Flash Player (free)
• Adobe Acrobat or other PDF readers

Free Preview:
1st Lesson Free.  Please visit this site using the following demo account.  Once you login the site, please select appropriate to course for your review.

Username: elo-demo@iastate.edu
Passcode: 1lessonfree
http://pd.elo.iastate.edu

Registration:
Registration fee per student for this course will be $175 per person. After successful completion of the course, you will receive .5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
Register Online or call 1-800-854-1675 for More Information!