Everything you need to know about ergonomic standards for handling loads

Manual handling standard: which standards should be respected?

The X35 – 109 standard is a recommendation of the CNAMTS (Caisse Nationale de l’Assurance Maladie des Travailleurs Salariés) relating to the carrying of loads for workers. It originally dates from 1989 and defined manual handling and the first maximum loads. It started by defining limited load bearing during work actions according to gender and age. 20 years after its birth, a new update of the standard was necessary.

It is the ergonomic standard X35-109 of 2011 which gives today the thresholds not to be exceeded:

• This standard concerns “manual handling” activities
• It concerns the population from 18 to 65 years old without distinction of gender
• It does not apply in very degraded situation or involving new risks: slope or staircase…
• It does not concern loads of less than 3 kg

Standard Manual handling: what is the maximum cumulative weight?

The X35 – 109 standard gives an acceptable daily cumulative tonnage of 7.5 tons over 8 hours for one person.

The X35 – 109 standard also defines an acceptable height of application of the effort for the position of the hands between 0.75 and 1.10 m.

Table 98 of the Social Security Code (article R. 461-3)

By obtaining the “Table 98” which lists all MSDs related to chronic lumbar problems (herniated discs) you will know which MSDs are caused by the manual handling of heavy loads. In this table, the designation of the diseases, the time limits for taking charge and the restrictive list of the susceptible works will help you to limit the causes which provoke MSD.