What is work at height?
by Admin
Posted on 14-04-2023 06:52 AM
Carry out risk assessments for
work
at height activities and make sure that all work is planned, organised and carried out by a competent person
follow the general principles of prevention for managing risks from work at height – take steps to avoid, prevent or reduce risks
chose the right work equipment and select collective measures to prevent falls (such as guard rails and working platforms) before other measures which may only reduce the distance and consequences of a fall (such as nets or airbags) or may only provide fall-arrest through personal protection equipment.
Working at height means working in a place where you could get injured by falling from a height. This applies where your workplace is at, above or below, ground level. It does not include a staircase in a permanent workplace. Activities covered by working at height include: using a kick stool or stepladder to access overhead shelving hanging curtains in bays changing lamps or ceiling tiles using trestles and ladders to paint or clean order picking using a fork-lift truck with an integrated platform working on a ladder or scaffold your manager must carry out a risk assessment for working at height and put in place control measures for risks identified.
According to the health and safetyauthority (hsa) ” working at height remains one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries. Common cases include falls from ladders and through fragile surfaces. ‘work at height’ means work in any place where, if there were no precautions in place, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury (for example a fall through a fragile roof). ”the working at height regulations 2007 requires all ‘working at height’ tasks to be properly planned. Those carrying out the work need to be competent. All risks have to be assessed, and appropriate work equipment selected, used, inspected and maintained.
You must make sure work is properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people with the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job. You must use the right type of equipment for working at height. Take a sensible approach when considering precautions. Low-risk, relatively straightforward tasks will require less effort when it comes to planning and there may be some low-risk situations where common sense tells you no particular precautions are necessary.
Working at Height in Agriculture - Info Sheet
Ladders, incomplete scaffolds, falling off a truck, a roof edge or falling through fragile roof sheeting are the major causes of injuries. These incidents largely happen in the construction, manufacturing, transport, postal and warehousing and agriculture industries. Safework nsw inspectors regularly blitz construction sites to check compliance and talk with employers and workers about how to work safely at heights.
Use this checklist to find out if your construction site is working at heights safely.
Call: 0818 289 389
Ladders lie at the source of many industrial and workplace accidents simply because we take their use for granted. Before using a ladder, consider whether or not they are the best solution for the task. Then make sure your employees are trained to properly use a ladder. It’s not as simple as you might think. For safe ladder handling, there are three main concepts to consider. Have a 3 ft. Extension of the ladder past the level to which you are climbing. Have a 4:1 ratio of rise and run. Basically, for every four feet high the ladder rises, place the base of the ladder one foot away from the structure.