How much can you safely lift? Try Oregon OSHA's new lift calculator

Let's say you have a basic lifting task - moving boxes off a conveyer, for example - that you have to repeat frequently for an hour. You know where the lift begins and where it ends. What's the maximum safe weight that you can lift?

You would think that with the countless number of mobile apps available through Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, there would be many that can quickly give you an answer. Curiously, that's not the case.

That got a few folks at Oregon OSHA thinking: Maybe we could develop an app that would answer the question and be easy to use. The result is Oregon OSHA's new lift calculator app for Android OS mobile devices. This "ergo app" uses a simplified version of the NIOSH lifting equation to give the user a maximum safe weight for various lifting scenarios. And thanks to the work of Department of Consumer and Business Services graphic design artist Ron Conrad, the app is easy to use.

The app lets you calculate a safe lifting weight in three steps:

1. Indicate where your lift begins.
2. Estimate the number of lifts per minute and the hours of lifting per day.
3. The app calculates the maximum safe lifting weight for the task.

You can get the app from Oregon OSHA's website or from the Google Play App Store.