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Legislation relating to working at heights The Working at Height Regulations 2005 (WAHR)
• The Regulations apply to all work at height where there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury.
• This legislation places a legal duty on everyone for the welfare of employers, employees and managers
There is a simple hierarchy for managing and selecting equipment for work at height. Duty holders must:
• Avoid work at height where they can;
• Use work equipment or other measures to prevent falls where they cannot avoid working at height; and
• Where they cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use work equipment or other measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall should one occur.
Falls are the biggest cause of workplace fatalities
• 35 fatal incidents in 2008/09 and a total of 421 since 2001
• Cause of 4589 major injuries 2008/09
• 87% of all major injuries are caused by ‘low falls’ (i.e. below 2 metres)
Where work has to be carried out at height, then the duty holder shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury’ (WAHR)
REMEMBER that injury can occur from a fall of any height, not just from above 2 metres.
Look at the video on working at heights make notes: http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/video/index.htm
LaddersEvery year an average of 14 people die and a further 1200 are seriously injured at work as a result of falling from a leaning ladder or stepladder.
Some of these accidnets will be a result of bad planning or use of the wrong piece of equipment for the job.
What are the reasons people fall from leaning ladders and stepladders?
• The leaning ladder slipping either at the top or bottom;
• The leaning ladder flipping over or coming away at the top;
• overstretching;
• A fault with the ladder;
• Slipping or loosing your footing;
• Stepladder wobbles due to missing feet or not being correctly open;
• Commonly referred to as mobile access towers or mobile scaffold towers, these structures are manufactured from prefabricated components where the principal structural materials are aluminium alloys or fibreglass.
• Wheels or feet of the tower must be in contact with a firm surface. Outriggers should be deployed as specified by the manufacturer.
Mobile Access Towers are covered by PASMA. More Information http://www.pasma.co.uk/