MANUAL HANDLING OF LOADS - THE POINT-OF-VIEW OF EXPERTS INVOLVED IN THE APPLICATION OF EC DIRECTIVE-90 269/

This paper illustrates the viewpoint of a group of Italian research wo rkers who have been directly involved in providing criteria and guidel ines for application of EC Directive 90/269, Manual handling of loads. The problems posed by application of the Directive in Italy and which are mainly related to exposure assessment, health surveillance and ri sk management (work and workplace redesign) are thoroughly examined. M ajor questions still to be solved include defining methods for assessm ent of multiple and complex load handling tasks, identifying data sour ces on 'health effect' trends as investigated in a working population with low exposure or in the general population in order to fix action levels, and setting up a data bank of technical and organizational sol utions and products accessible to experts and users.