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It’s not often that the importance of safety when working from height makes the pages of the nationals but it made the news last week, for all the wrong reasons. A passerby captured a video of a window cleaner working 40ft above ground level at the Loch Fyne restaurant in Bath, Somerset, without a harness, scaffold or MEWP in sight. Worse still, he was seen merrily hopping out of windows, ... more
Good health and safety practice often goes un-noticed, so it’s only right that the safety and health practitioners who have excelled at protecting people from injury or ill health were recognised earlier this month at an awards ceremony held by Safety and Health Practitioner (SHP) magazine and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Comedian Seann Walsh of the BBC’s ... more
Crowds in Trafalgar Square looked on speechless recently as a scantily-clad man stood astride what appeared to be a completely upright, unsupported ladder. Wielding knives and wearing an outfit that left very little to the imagination, street entertainer, Pete Dobbing, performed his signature trick of climbing and balancing on an entirely unsupported 10ft ladder to the delight of crowds in the ... more
On Sunday morning everything fell in to place - We've been planning a day time Panorama shot of Nelson's view over London for a few months now and on Sunday it all came together, great weather, only a slight breeze. During routine infrastructure inspection of Nelsons Column we were able to take a quick visit to Nelsons eye level and with the camera and gigapan all set up were able to capture a 360 ... more
Bronto S50XDT-J stop frame film demonstrating the amazing capabilities of this latest truck mounted platform to join our fleet. Film was shot at St Hughs Monastery Parkminster, the carthusian monastery has many private courtyards that are difficult to access for maintenance works, we were able to perform many maintenance tasks, including clearing of blocked gutters, minor roof repairs and inspe ... more
Despite decades of campaigns, investment in training, and attitudes towards health and safety improving significantly in the last 30 years, it seems that basic errors are still being made on construction sites all over the UK, leading to death, injury and ill health when working at height. In the last year [up to April 2012], 49 workers lost their lives on construction sites in the UK, with falls ... more
A UK-based harness manufacturer and distributor has tackled one of the more weighty health and safety issues of our times, by increasing the certified capacity for its ZT harnesses from 100kg to 150kg. Innovations in the field of PPE are being made all the time, and it’s a step in the right direction that one of the most user-friendly harnesses on the block is now available to all worker ... more
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) may be announcing plans to tighten up inspections on construction sites, but it seems that from April 2013, ‘low risk’ businesses will be exempt from visits from their visits. Ministers have announced that they will scrap or change more than 3,000 regulations applying to businesses such as pubs, shops, offices and clubs, with the aim of relievin ... more
They may have only just formed, but IPAF’s new UK Council is already making significant changes. In the first ever meeting of the IPAF UK Country Council the group voted to make accident reporting a condition of IPAF membership for UK rental companies. This means that as of 2013, IPAF rental company members in the UK are required to report any known aerial lift accidents involving their sta ... more
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) consultation on proposed changes to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurences Regulations (RIDDOR) closes on the 28th October, meaning contractors have just four weeks left to make their voices heard. The changes being proposed will remove the duty to report in cases where the information is of little use or better collected throug ... more
