Executive Hire News › Archives › May 2009 › Market Report : Height of safety
Market Report : Height of safety
To start our Market Report, we consider several new developments and initiatives to provide appropriate guidance and training for those undertaking tasks involving work at height.
Ensuring that work at height is carried out safely remains an important issue. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) reports that falls from height still represent the most common kind of workplace fatality and it continues to introduce measures to spotlight the appropriate regulations and good working practices.
Scheduled for launch this summer, the latest HSE initiative is WAIT (Work at height, Access equipment, Information Tool). Accessible via the HSE web site, it is designed particularly to help occasional users choose the safest type of equipment for a specific task. Based on the information that users provide about the job and the working environment, it will provide suggestions and guidance that can supplement risk assessments. The HSE suggests that people should use WAIT at least one day before the planned work activity, taking account of factors such as the weather and grounds conditions, to decide what equipment they will need to use and, perhaps, to hire. The service will be reviewed and updated regularly by the HSE.
Also planned for introduction later this year is a training module dedicated to low-level access being developed by PASMA, which represents the mobile access tower industry in the UK and Ireland. Since 2004 (a year before the Work at Height Regulations (WAHR) were introduced), industry estimates suggest that approximately 50,000 specially developed low-level access products such as podium steps and folding room scaffolds could be in use. PASMA MD Peter Bennett believes that “Everyone must accept that these products have their limitations and, like any other work at height equipment, employers have a statutory obligation to ensure that anyone who uses them is both competent and aware of the factors that can affect their safe use. This can only be effectively achieved through training, which is why PASMA has developed
this new module.
“A second issue is the imperative for a product standard for low-level access equipment. Unfortunately, whenever there is a high demand for a product, there is inevitably an opportunity for cheap, inferior and often imported versions which, in the absence of a minimum standard, can be marketed with impunity. These products have the potential to exacerbate the already alarming statistics for low-level working at height, which is why PASMA’s technical committee is already at an advanced stage in drafting a suitable product standard.” The Association expects to publish a draft standard for public comment during the second quarter of this year.
The Ladder Association is also promoting a safety message. Successful completion of its training courses provides the proof of competence required under the WAHR. “We all think we can use a ladder, but it is surprising the number of people who are very experienced who go on our courses and come away having learned something new,” says Chairman Don Aers. It is estimated that there are two million ladders in daily use. HSE figures show that, on average, 13 people a year die at work falling from ladders, and that nearly 1,200 suffer major injuries. Overall, more than one quarter of falls happen from ladders.
The Ladder Association is promoting safe usage and risk assessment under the acronym ‘Step’, which focuses attention on the site where work will take place, the task’s nature, the equipment to use and finally the training that people have undertaken. A person should not undertake a job using a ladder or stepladder which will require them to work continuously for more than 30 minutes at a time. A series of tasks that take longer can be carried out, but each should not last longer than 30 minutes. •
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