Opinion FLTA
Fear of heights
In this month’s Fact File, the Fork Lift Truck Association focuses on the issues associated with working at heights.
Falling from heights is one of Britain’s leading causes of workplace
accidents. According to statistics from HSE for 2008/09, falls resulted in major injuries requiring hospitalisation for more than 4,000 employees.
WORKING PLATFORMS Fork lift trucks are intended primarily for lifting materials, not people. However, they can be used with working platforms to allow for working at height. Their design and use is subject to detailed and specific rules. Any person involved in this type of application should be familiar with these. The term “platform” can be misleading. It refers to equipment
purpose-built platforms cannot be used legally for routine tasks, including: • Painting; • Cleaning; • Maintenance; • Stocktaking; • Order picking.
The use of working platforms is restricted to occasional emergency tasks, such as: • Checking for damage at height;
• Changing essential light fittings;
• Clearing blocked gutters. A number of further restrictions and regulations apply to the design and deployment of platforms. These are given in HSE Guidance Note PM 28 (3rd Edition), Working Platforms (Non- Integrated) On Forklift Trucks,
“Any forklift that may be used with a working platform must have a Thorough Examination at least once every six months”
which allows a fork lift truck to be used to raise one or more people to a working position, so that an urgent essential task can be carried out in relative safety. The law forbids the use of pallets, skips or stillages – or any improvised device – as platforms to lift people. Under certain exceptional circumstances a purpose-built platform may be used. This will be a specially designed item from a manufacturer of specialist attachments. It will always have sides, to contain the worker safely, and it must be provided with a number of other safety devices specified by the law. However, even the safest of
28 June 2012 Storage Handling Distribution
which can be downloaded from
www.hse.gov.uk. This should be studied by anyone considering the use of a platform. Any fork lift truck that may be used with a working platform must have a Thorough Examination at least once every six months. All working platforms must also undergo Thorough Examination at least once every six months.
EVACUATION PROCEDURES Some materials handling equipment is designed to work with operators raised to heights of more than three metres. The law requires that employers provide a safe means of escape
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for operators of such equipment, should it become stuck in a raised position. The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER 98) state: “You should ensure that in the event of failure of the lifting equipment that the persons being lifted are not exposed to danger and a reliable means of rescue is available.” Every site and application
is different. Therefore, a risk assessment, designed to meet the operation’s specific needs, must be conducted to determine the most appropriate means of rescue.
Guidance on this subject is given in the HSE Local Authority Circular 20/3, available from
www.hse.gov. uk/lau/lacs. Designed for specialist inspectors, it provides a useful review of the crucial issues – including the types of equipment available and training requirements. This should be read in full if considering rope evacuation.
After careful evaluation, a company may be justified in writing a risk assessment which states that rope evacuation training is a far greater risk than being stranded at height. However, if this position is adopted the risk assessment should continue to a point where it identifies a means of rescue. Free fact sheets covering this topic, alongside a host of others answering common fork lift truck queries, can be downloaded at
www.fork-truck.org.uk/fact-sheets. n
www.fork-truck.org.uk
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