Tag: working at heights

Heights, Standards and Safety

Engineering and design Standards have existed globally for a long time.  They have considerable authority, often provided through legislation, and underpin many of the safety devices and equipment used in workplaces.  But does compliance with Standards mean that something is safe?

The easy answer is no. A recent presentation to the Central Safety Group (CSG) by David Davis of the Working at Heights Association illustrated this gap between workplace safety compliance and compliance with Standards.

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Working at Heights seminar video available

In early September 2013 I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on the issue of working at heights.  The “crisis summit” was reported on recently by Marian Macdonald.  The videos of this panel are now available through the WAHA YouTube channel and all the separate videos are worth viewing.  The video in which I first advocate for a focus on safety is embedded below.

The questions from the floor are included in the last video of the panel discussion.  If the issue of working at heights seems dry it is worth looking at the video from the 4.30 minute mark.  Several members of the audience take the Workcover NSW representative to task.

Kevin Jones

One in three safety devices unfit to save lives

On September 3 2013 I will be on a panel in Sydney discussing issues associated with working at heights. Below is a media release (not yet available online) about the panel and some recent data on working at heights risks. The quotes are mine.

Inaction by policy makers is putting lives at risk and now, says a peak safety industry body, there are the numbers to prove it.

The Working At Heights Association (WAHA) will host a crisis summit on Tuesday at The Safety Show Sydney, where it will reveal that one in three roof anchors are unfit for use. Of the 3245 anchors audited by association members over the last three months, 2260 were deemed unusable.

Part of the problem, says WAHA secretary Gordon Cadzow, has been the lack of awareness of the number of inadequate safety systems on Australia’s rooftops.

Continue reading “One in three safety devices unfit to save lives”

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