Health & Safety
Health & Safety
New working at height regulations (WAHR) came into force on April 6th 2005!
There is a legal requirement to ensure a safe and efficient maintenance regime for people working at height. Failing to protect personnel can make you personally liable for the human and financial consequences.
Fall Prevention Advice
HSE give the following fall prevention advice:
- Don't start work at height until you have properly planned how you are going to do it, and you have assessed and controlled the risks involved.
- Ensure that you have fully considered all of the ways in which you could be at risk of falling.
- Don't underestimate the risks involved. Simply 'taking care' is not enough. Proper precautions must be in place.
- Consider whether there are other, safer ways of doing the job.
- Decide what equipment is required for the job. Ideally precautions should be designed to prevent a fall, for example using guard rails at a roof edge or crawling boards on a fragile roof. For some jobs it may be appropriate to use fall arrest equipment such as a safety harness.
- If you have not got the appropriate equipment then get it. Don't take a chance with a ladder if what you should be using is a tower scaffold. Making do without the right equipment to minimise expense can lead to injury or death, as well as prosecution if the law is broken.
- Ensure that there are no defects in any equipment that you use.
- Make sure that equipment is used safely and that any necessary training and/or supervision is provided.