Manual Lifting ─ A Guide to the Study of Simple and Complex Lifting Tasks

"Preface One of our vocations as "old, hardened researchers" has always been to seek solutions for the prevention of occupational risk of biomechanical overload and to teach self-management of the problems at the source Prevention should be done directlyby those designing workplaces and jobs! Our experience comes from constant comparisons between the need to respond to the actual needs of workers and technical staff (who require practical tools, simple and easily applicable in the field) and the need tofind answers, solutions, and criteria by experimentally verified reliable methods (being often quite complex). In short, translation of the matter complexity into easily applicable prevention approaches is just one of the main goals of the Ergonomics of Posture and Movement (EPM) Research Unit, which we founded and in which Enrico and I have operated for many years, under the sponsorship of Don Gnocchi, ONLUS Foundation (IRCCS Santa Maria Nascente, Milan Polo-Tecnologico). Another important goal is to diffuse the knowledge on the matter. Following a series of meetings with colleagues and technicians, at congresses and meetings in different parts of the world, the idea to create an International School of Ergonomics of Posture and Movement was originated.Thus we created the school as an operative section of EPM (more details can be found at www.epmresearch.org). The school has its accredited teachers and has the main objective to teach different professionals, in different parts of the world and in theirnative language, the art of prevention according to an easy and effective approach. In summary EPM and its schools have the following main goals in relation to the broader aim of improving health and work:"--

Daniela Colombini is a Senior Research Fellow and the Manager of the Research Programs in Applied Ergonomics, Polo Technological in Don Gnocchi Foundation in Milan, Italy.

Enrico Occhipinti is the Director of Centre for Occupational Medicine at Foundation Ca' Granda Policlinico, Milan, Italy.

Thomas Waters is a Senior Safety Engineer at NIOSH, Human Factors and Ergonomics Research Team.

Enrique Alvarez is with the Department of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics at the Universitat Politecnica of Catalonia, Spain.