Falls From Height

Falls From Height

There is a requirement under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for employers and the self employed to take 'reasonably practicable" precautions in various areas to safeguard themselves, employees and others affected by or in connection with any undertakings. More explicitly regulation 3 of Managing Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires that employers and the self employed identify any hazards involved in their work. Assess the likely hood of harm arising from such work and decide upon the process to be taken to prevent such harm from occurring.

Falls from height are one of the largest causes of work place deaths and injuries. It is therefore essential that measures are in place to protect the worker against falls from height, whether they are working from constructed platforms, scaffold, scaffold towers, mobile platforms (MEWPS) or an exposed leading edge to name a few.

Definition of Working at Height

Work at height is work in any place where a person can be injured if they fell from that place, including a place at, above or below ground level. Access and egress can also be a place of work. Example:

• Working on a flat roof
• Working from a ladder
• Erecting false-work and formwork
• Working at ground level next to open excavations
• Working on formwork within an excavation
• Installing curtain walling
• Working on a flatbed lorry

Organisation And Planning

The working at Height regulation 2005 state that work at height shall be properly planned, appropriately supervised and carried out in a manner that is as far as reasonably practicably safe and that weather conditions do not jeopardize the health and safety of persons involved in the work. In addition to this planning for emergencies and rescue must be in place.

Avoidance

Work is not to be carried out at height if this risk can be avoided; if this cannot be achieved for any reason then suitable and sufficient measures must be in place to mitigate the distance and consequences of a fall. When selecting work equipment the hierarchy of control shall be considered.

• Avoid work at height.
• Prevent a fall from occurring using collective measures (Edge protection/ guard rails) power
  access or restraint.
• Mitigate distance and consequences of a fall using nets, air bags or fall arrest equipment.

In all cases collective measures shall have priority over personal measures (Guards rails over Harnesses) In relation to point 2 and 3 additional instruction, supervision and training should be in place to minimise the likely hood of a fall from occurring. Training should be given by
a competent person.

Competency

Competency is a level of knowledge, experience and responsibility supported by training and certification for a particular task but this is over-ridden by the individual's ability to recognise their own limitations for a particular task. Certification and training should be delivered by either a CITB, HSE or industry recognized companies or organizations.