There’s a reason that carrying out risk assessments and wearing PPE is a legal requirement in the UK – unfortunately, some learn the importance of these necessities the hard way.
Craven and Nicholas Engineering Ltd has been fined after one of its employees fell through a roof when working at height in Boston. The worker in question fell through a fragile roof and fell 6 metres, sustaining injuries to his head and arm.
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When it comes to material handling, the sack truck is a hard piece of equipment to beat. Sack trucks are a great tool that makes the manoeuvring of loads quick, easy, and can reduce the risk of injury during handling. To use a sack truck safely, follow all relevant guidelines and our safety tips.
Although a sack truck is an incredibly useful tool, it’s important to ensure that you’re using it correctly. Incorrectly using a sack truck can be as potentially dangerous as trying to handle heavy loads without the appropriate equipment.
When it comes to working at height, there’s nothing more important than having top-quality, reliable equipment. It’s also important to regularly check your equipment to make sure that everything is in good condition – but how regularly are you legally required to have it inspected? Can you inspect it yourself? And how can you keep your equipment in the best possible condition?
There is no legal manual handling weight limit in the UK, but there is still a limit to how much a person can safely lift.
Every workplace is different, and every career has different responsibilities. Some people might be expected to do a large amount of manual handling and lifting daily, while some people might go for years lifting nothing more than a pen. Different employees will have different manual handling weight limits.
Manual handling is the transport or support of a load by bodily force, or by hand. Basically, it's the handling of any load whether you're lifting it, dragging it or pushing it. The term 'manual handling' covers the whole lot.
According to government legislation, manual handling is formally defined as: “the transporting or supporting of a load (including lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving) by hand or by bodily force.”
Working at height means work where a fall could cause personal injury. For a more detailed explanation of what working at height means, read on.
"Working at Height" refers to more situations than you might think. Yes, working on the seventh story of an apartment cleaning the windows is considered work at height, but so is working by a drain on ground level! Don't worry if this is confusing to you, this blog will go over the definition of working at height and discuss what counts as working at height in simple terms to make it easy to understand.
Essentially, working at height means you are working in a situation where harm could occur from a fall. The definition of 'working at height' - according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) - is as follows:
"Work at height means work in any place where, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury."
By this definition, working at height could mean working on a roof, or climbing up a ladder, or even standing on the ground near a hole that you could fall into. However, permanent staircases in buildings do not fall under the category of working at height.
Note that there's a difference between a fall and a slip/trip. According to the HSE guidelines, "a fall from height has to involve a fall from one level to a lower level". If you are working at height, then you always need to be wary of falls from height, and take proper safety precautions.
If you'd like to know more about what working at height means, then we recommend reading the official UK guidelines: Work at Height Regulations 2005. The information you can find there includes more details on the full definition of working at height, the regulations surrounding this topic, and what safety equipment to use in different work environments.
Working at Height FAQs
Here at SafetyLiftinGear, we're fully dedicated to protecting workers, especially when there's a risk of falling. Click the link below to browse our huge range of fall protection products that can be used when working at height.
Working at Height Equipment
If you're not sure what kind of fall protection system is best for your work environment, don't hesitate to get in touch with our height safety experts.
READ MORE: Things to Consider When Working at Height
A high school in Southport, Merseyside received a hefty fine last month after a worker fell off a roof and sustained multiple fractures.
The incident in question occurred in 2018. According to shponline.co.uk, the man was getting some footballs down from the roof of the school's sixth form centre when he lost his footing and fell more than 3 metres before hitting the ground.
A HSE investigation found that there were no fall protection measures in place to prevent an incident like this. An edge protection system or anchor point could have kept the worker from falling off the roof, but no such precautions had been taken, and so the governing body of Christ the King Catholic High School and Sixth Form Centre were fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,851.50.
Falls from height are among the most common causes of injury and death in the workplace. Employers must ensure that appropriate safety measures are in place before allowing staff to work at height.
Height Safety Equipment Fall Protection Systems
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Our safety equipment is great for helping you work safely on a roof. So, we thought we'd put together a guide for you on how to use it!
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