A stock handler at a grocery warehouse facility transfers pallets stacked with boxes of frozen meat from the cold storage room to the dock area to be transferred onto semitrailers to be delivered to grocery stores. The stock handler uses a manual hand pallet jack to pull the fully stacked pallets out of the storage areas (see figure below). The handler must first pull the pallet straight out of the slot ,then while still pulling turn the pallet jack in order to pull it out of the storage area. The pulling force was measured with a push/pull dynamometer. When initially pulling the pallet straight out of its slot the pull force was measured to be 55 lbs, whereas when turning the pallet into the aisle while pulling the force was measured to be 65 lbs. The hand height of the handles was measured to be 32 inches, and the distance between the hands was 18 inches.

(a) (10 pts) Perform an assessment of this pallet manual handling task utilizing the Ohio BWC/OSU Pushing-Pulling Guidelines. Provide the recommendation(s) from the guidelines. Be sure to document the inputs you utilized for assessment of this task in the determination of the recommendation(s).

(B) (4 pts) Determine if this pallet manual handling task warrants an intervention or not. If no, justify why. If yes suggest interventions and provide explanations as to how your suggested interventions may reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injury to the low back.