The FEM Product Group for Cranes and Lifting Equipment has issued a position paper stating that cranes should not be used for lifting people other than in exceptional circumstances where safety requirements are met and undertaken at the user’s specifi c responsibility. FEM (Fédération Européenne
Familiarisation is vital
Your operators have been trained, but have they also been familiarised to use specifi c MEWPs on site? Operators who intend to use any machine
differing signifi cantly from the machine they have been trained on should receive a familiarisation to cover the differences. Machine-specifi c familiarisation should follow on from basic training and cover
IPAF Summit SAVE THE DATE
The 2012 IPAF Summit and International Awards for Powered Access (IAPAs) will be presented on March 29 in Rome, Italy. Enter for an award or book your dinner ticket at www.iapa-summit.info.
6 | POWERED ACCESS 2012
manufacturer’s instructions and warnings, features of the specifi c model, control functions, safety devices and emergency lowering procedures. IPAF-approved training centres offer a demonstrator course aimed at giving candidates the competence to deliver familiarisation. See technical guidance note F1 in the Publications section of www.ipaf.org.
de la Manutention) is the European manufacturers’ association for material handling equipment. In its position paper FEM CLE MC N 0284, the FEM Product Group for Cranes and Lifting Equipment stipulates: “Mobile cranes shall never be used for entertainment purposes, for example lifting persons for shows, bungee jumping, dinner-in-the-sky or lifting of other structures with people on the structure or underneath (for instance, lifting of tents). “Mobile cranes are not intended to lift
persons. They may be used to suspend personnel in man baskets only in unique work situations when it is the least hazardous way to do the job.” Several crane manufacturers’ operator
manuals clearly prohibit the use of their equipment for lifting people to great heights for recreational purposes. Welcoming FEM’s clarifi cation,
IPAF chief executive Tim Whiteman said: “Purpose-built powered access equipment is an infi nitely safer and more precise method of providing access to carry out temporary work at height. Compare this with a basket suspended from a single crane rope, which may well blow around in the wind. Cranes should be used for lifting loads, not people.”