Safe maintenance
Following publication of Lord Young's report into improving health and safety, plant engineers need to get back to basics. Brian Tinham talks to Geoff Cox, HSE's head of manufacturing
Ladder to success
Working at height is one of the main causes of industrial fatalities, so using the right access equipment is imperative. What are the most important considerations to be made when choosing, and using, a ladder for access or work at height?
The 46 reasons to take falls seriously
Gravity is good. It causes dispersed matter to coalesce and ensures this combined material – which includes you and me – remains intact. It is also, literally, the force of nature that keeps our feet on the ground. There are, however, circumstances in which gravity works against us, the most obvious example being falls from height.
Head for heights
There are many concerns when it comes to working at height, not least cheap inferior products now flooding the UK market. Brian Wall reports
Heightened awareness
Last year alone, 45 workers died following falls from height, while 3,409 were seriously injured. And while recent years have shown a downward trend, falls from height remain the most common cause of fatal injury in the workplace. Legislation, as enshrined in the Work at Height Regulations 2005, was introduced to bear down on the problem, but the truth is regulations are only half the battle. As Nick Wilson, former inspector with the HSE and now a chartered safety practitioner with law firm Weightmans, says: 'There is some doubt as to whether duty holders fully understand their legal obligations - even the basic preventive measures that can be taken to reduce accidents.' So first let's examine the regulations and where they are intended to operate. Wilson makes it clear that they apply to all work at any height where there is an identifiable risk of a fall liable to cause injury. That is a very wide definition, and duties are placed on employers, the self-employed, and any person that controls the work of others, to do all that is ?reasonably practicable' to prevent anyone falling.
Herculean effort or Olympic gold?
As we go to press, with London on the final countdown to the 2012 Olympics, plant engineers – although excited by the spectacle and impressed by the scale of the interdisciplinary project engineering that has made it all happen – will inevitably be focused on large and looming concerns.
Highs and lows
Working at height comes with clear - indeed often all too visible - dangers, of which more later. By contrast, in confined spaces, the hazards may be less evident, but nonetheless potentially fatal - with asphyxiation, entrapment, physical injury, engulfment and poisoning just some of the main concerns.
Copycat scaffolding poses major threat
Although perhaps more readily associated with building and construction, scaffolding is widely used throughout industry. Whether to meet a short-term access requirement or as part of a larger scale refurbishment project, the need to retain on site both the scaffolding equipment itself and an understanding of its safe use needs little emphasis. The use of such equipment is commonplace, from mobile stairtowers to 'bird cage scaffolds' - used, for example, to create a platform at a required working height - or the installation of versatile façade scaffolds to provide access at various lift levels along the face of a building. Responsibility for its safe use may rest with site engineers, maintenance departments or facilities management organisations.
Friends in high places
Falls from height are the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the predominant causes of major injury in the UK. According to HSE statistics, 2006/07 falls from height accounted for 45 fatal accidents at work and 3,350 major injuries.
A head for heights
Falls from height cause half of major injuries in the workplace, with most accidents occurring from a very unspectacular two metres or below. Max Gosney asks why the Working at Height Regulations are so badly misunderstood.