HAMILTON, ON (January 3, 2008) - The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) and the Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) have teamed up to co-host Pushing, Pulling, Lifting, and Lowering: A workshop on manual materials handling in the workplace. The conference will take place March 4, 2008 in Mississauga, Ontario and provide a forum to discuss manual materials handling from a variety of perspectives and what can be done to reduce musculoskeletal disorders at work.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a major pain - in the muscles, tendons or nerves in the lower back, shoulders, neck, elbows, wrists or hands and the cause of suffering for thousands of workers every year. Lifting, lowering, pushing and pulling contribute greatly to MSDs whether in manufacturing, construction, trucking, healthcare, forestry or agriculture. This conference is for managers, supervisors, health and safety committees and anyone with an interest in reducing MSDs in workers.

The workshop features a keynote presentation by Dr. Tom Waters, certified professional ergonomist and Senior Safety Engineer at NIOSH, renowned internationally for his work on the revised NIOSH lifting equation - the most commonly used tool to measure if workers are exerting too much effort to lift or lower.

An array of experts in the field will also speak from the perspectives of research, consultants, injured workers, disability management, labour, management, and regulatory.

CCOHS is offering a live webinar of the event for those registrants who prefer to participate from the comfort of their own computer or meeting room.

More information, including registration and pricing details about the workshop and the webinar is available on the CCOHS website: http://www.ccohs.ca/events/mmh/.

For further information contact:
Eleanor Westwood
Manager of Communications
CCOHS
905.572.2981 X4408
eleanorw@ccohs.ca

More about CCOHS
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety (CCOHS) is Canada's national resource for the advancement of workplace health and safety. CCOHS promotes the total well-being - physical, psychosocial and mental health - of working Canadians by providing information, training, education, management systems and solutions that support health and safety programs and the prevention of injury and illness. Please visit www.ccohs.ca

More about CRE-MSD
The Centre of Research Expertise in the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) based at the University of Waterloo, conducts research to improve the understanding of and prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. CRE-MSD Collaborates with multiple stakeholder groups and brings researchers from many different universities and institutes together to collaborate on research into the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders.
Please visit http://cre-msd.uwaterloo.ca/.