BS EN 1005-5:2007 Safety of machinery. Human physical performance. Risk assessment for repetitive handling at high frequency
BS EN 1005-5 is a European Standard that presents guidance to the designer of machinery or its component parts and the writer of type C standards in assessing and controlling health and safety risks due to machine-related repetitive handling at high frequency.
BS EN 1005-5 specifies reference data for action frequency of the upper limbs during machinery operation, and it presents a risk assessment method intended for risk reduction option analysis.
Part 5 of BS EN 1005 applies to machinery for professional operation by the healthy adult working population. It is not applicable for repetitive movements and related risks of the neck, back and lower limbs.
Within the life cycle of a machine from construction to dismantling, various machine-related actions may require repetitive handling at high frequency. Repetitive handling at high frequency can cause musculoskeletal strain and the risk of fatigue, discomfort and musculoskeletal disorders. The designer of a machine should seek to minimise these health risks by taking into account a variety of risk factors including the frequency of actions, the force, postures, durations, lack of recovery and other additional factors.
Although factors such as duration and lack of recovery periods are relevant factors when assessing risk in relation to human physical performance in the workplace, these factors are controlled by the member states own national legislation, contract agreements with social partners and are not in the scope of this European Standard.
The risk assessment method in this European Standard gives guidance to the designer how to reduce health risks for the operator.
This European Standard is written in conformity with EN ISO 12100-1 and provides the user with guidance for hazard identification for harm through musculoskeletal overload and tools for qualitative and, to an extent, a quantitative risk assessment. The risk assessment tools also indicate how to achieve risk reduction, but it does not deal with risks related to accidents.
The recommendations provided by BS EN 1005-5 are based on available scientific evidence concerning the physiology and epidemiology of manual work. The knowledge is, however, limited and the suggested guidelines are subject to changes according to future research.
Contents of BS EN 1005-5 includes:
Foreword
Introduction
Scope
Normative references
Terms and definitions
Abbreviations
Requirements
The application of standards relevant to this document
General aspects
Risk assessment
Hazard identification
Risk estimation and simple evaluation of machinery related repetitive handling at high frequency
Detailed risk evaluation of machinery related repetitive handling at high frequency: risk reduction and risk reduction option analysis
Verification
Information for use
Identification of technical action
Examples for identifying and counting technical actions
Pick and place with transfer from one hand to the other and with visual inspection
Pick and place while transporting a load
Cyclical use of a tool with repeated and identical actions
Technical actions not carried out in every cycle
Posture and types of movements
Force
A biomechanical approach based on user group strength distributions
A psychophysical approach using the CR-10 Borg scale
Annex D (informative) Association between the OCRA index and the occurrence of Upper Limbs Work-related Musculo-Skeletal Disorders (UL-WMSDs): criteria for the classification of results and forecast models
D.2 OCRA Index values, exposure areas and consequent actions
Influence of recovery periods pattern and work time duration in determining the overall number of reference technical actions within a shift (RTA) and, consequently, the OCRA index
An application example of risk reduction in a mono-task analysis
General: technical characteristics of the task
Hazard identification
EN 1005-5:2007