Lifting & Material Handling
Backs don't usually fail on the heroic lift — they fail on the ten-thousandth ordinary one done badly. Sprains and strains are the biggest lost-time category in the trades, year after year.
How to run it
Read it through once, then talk it — don't recite it. Five minutes at the start of the shift, crew standing where the work happens. Under O. Reg. 213/91, s. 14(3)–(4), the talk is held by a supervisor or a competent person the supervisor appoints — and the sign-in sheet is what proves it happened.
Talk through these points
- Size it up first: weight, grip, path, and landing spot. The plan takes five seconds; the injury takes months.
- Load close to the body, feet set, lift with the legs, no twisting under load — turn with your feet instead.
- Two-person lifts and mechanical help aren't weakness, they're math. Carts, dollies, and the telehandler exist for a reason.
- Stage materials near the work at a good height. Every re-handle of the same stack is another chance at the same injury.
- Awkward beats heavy: long, floppy, or view-blocking loads deserve a second set of hands even when they're light.
- Cold muscles tear — the first lifts of a winter morning are the ones to take slow.
Ask the crew
- What gets carried on this job that should be rolling on wheels?
- Where are we staging material that makes us handle it twice?
- What's the worst regular lift on this site — let's fix that one.
The answers are the real talk. If a question lands on a live hazard, write it down and assign it a name and a date.
Paper it
A talk without a record didn't happen, as far as anyone who asks is concerned. Print these free:
A new talk every week.
The toolbox talks page rotates a featured topic weekly — bookmark it, or grab the talk by email every Monday.