01 December 2006
Bridget Leathley

One Problem when searching for "lifting" on the internet is the ambiguity of the word. Union and government sites, for example, often use the phrase "lifting" people from poverty.

Even in a health and safety context, lifting will often refer to manual handling rather than mechanically aided lifting operations.

A simple search engine query will not, then, focus on the information you need. A more fruitful approach is to go to specialist sites - such as those described here - and either browse menus or search using more specific keywords.

Prescriptive legislation

The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998 (Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 2307) state that lifting equipment should be of "adequate strength and stability" for its purpose.

The Regulations lay down extra requirements for equipment used to lift people and are prescriptive in defining minimum inspection periods and requirements for inspection and fault reports.

The Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002 (No. 2174) made minor drafting alterations to LOLER. Separate legislation, the Mines (Shafts and Winding) Regulations 1993, applies to work in mines. The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992 (No. 3073) and the Lifts Regulations 1997 (No. 831) may also be relevant in some cases. The full text of all these sets of regulations is available at www.opsi.gov.uk - search by year and number under "statutory instruments".

The legal requirements stem from the EU Directive on the minimum safety and health requirements for the use of work equipment by workers at work (89/655/EEC) and its amendments 95/63/EC and 2001/45/EC.

Go to http://europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm and select "employment and social policy" then "health, hygiene and safety at work". Choose "use of work equipment" from the list of options under "equipment, signs and loads" for a summary of the Directive and its amendments, and links to the full text.

Injuries may arise in a number of ways during lifting operations: an item being lifted could fall and crush someone; a worker could be hit as something is moved; and there is the risk of electric shock from contact with a power source.

Fatal work

HSE all-industry accident statistics are broken down by the direct cause, such as electrocution or crushing, so it is not possible to see the number of accidents that are caused by lifting operations. But HSE offshore statistics for 2005-06 show that 8.3% of offshore dangerous occurrences involved failures of lifting equipment. Go to www.hse.gov.uk/offshore and select "information", then look under "statistics" to find the Offshore Safety Statistics Bulletin 2005-2006.

US statistics indicate that 3.8% of fatal accidents in construction in 2003 were the result of being hit or crushed or falling during lifting operations; a further 3.4% were due to electric shock when equipment - including cranes and lifting equipment - came into contact with a power source. An Analysis of Fatal Events in the Construction Industry, 2003 can be found at www.cdc.gov/elcosh - follow the path "hazard", "safety", then "struck by".

Read more

The HSE does not list "lifting operations" in the menu of health and safety topics on its homepage, but it is listed under "L" in the "free leaflets" area: go to www.hse.gov.uk and select "publications". Downloadable advice includes the Simple Guide to the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (INDG 290) and Thorough Examination and Testing of Lifts: Simple Guidance for Lift Owners (INDG 339).

The Application of PUWER and LOLER to Equipment in Health Services and Social Care gives sector-specific examples of lifting operations and lifting equipment. It was written before the 2002 amendments, and so refers to a slightly different definition of "accessory for lifting", but remains a useful guide for those managing care homes or home-helps. It can be difficult to find; the easiest way to reach it is to type "7_99_18" in the general search field on the HSE homepage.

The guidance documents for HSE and local authority inspectors provide further advice on lifting. From www.hse.gov.uk/lau select "local authority circulars" and "W" for workplace safety (91) or "L" for lifting machinery (49). The circulars range from general advice on interpreting LOLER (such as LAC Number 90/4) to very specific advice on topics such as electromagnetic lifting (LAC 49/6) and vacuum lifting attachments (LAC 49/9).

The key Approved Codes of Practice and guidance documents from the HSE, Safe Use of Lifting Equipment: Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (L 113) and Safe Use of Work Equipment: Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (L 22), can be purchased from HSE Books at www.hsebooks.co.uk.

The British Standards Institution also has a series of codes of practice covering different aspects of the safe use of cranes. For details and costs go to www.bsiglobal.com and search for "7121".

Many industry bodies have produced their own guidance on lifting operations, so do check out the sites of any organisations you belong to. Step Change has produced Lifting and Mechanical Handling Guidelines for the oil and gas industry (most easily accessed from www.irata.org - click on "free publications") and The Safety in Design initiative has lots of advice for building designers on how to take account of the capacity of lifting equipment. From www.safetyindesign.org select "design guides" for a list of titles. The "Lifting - Cranes" and "Erection of structures" pdf links are particularly relevant.

For training in lifting operations, a good starting point is the Construction Industry Training Board. Go to www.citbconstructionskills.co.uk and search for "lifting operations" in the search field to find details of the four-day Appointed Person (Lifting Operations) course. CITB also has a CDROM-based training product, Learning Lifting - LOLER 98 Explained", priced £119 or £96 for members; select "publications" and then scroll to "CD-Roms" in the "all products" list and enter "lifting" into the search box.

Down to cases

Practical examples of how specific lifting operations can be made safer are available on the Design Best Practice site at www.dbp.org.uk Select "case studies" then "case study index" and find Lifting Frame for Modular Piperacks (DBP00028). You can also access case studies via the "SHE index", but I found those listed under "lifting appliances and lifting gear" less relevant: they are either commercial or they relate to reducing working-at-height accidents.

The Japanese International Center for Occupational Safety and Health site at www.jicosh.gr.jp provides some very useful examples of lifting equipment hazards. Select "English" from the top right-hand corner then click on "case studies". You will find a few lifting incidents among the "cases of industrial accidents occurred in Japan" and several more in "cases of industrial accidents relating to construction and loading vehicles". Click on the "cases involving lift trucks" link to access some well illustrated examples; these would be a useful training tool as they show the hazardous "before" situation as well as the accident and include safety tips.

There are some examples of lifting incidents in the TUC "Risks" bulletins, which I found through an advanced Google search rather than the TUC's search engine, where "lifting" produced too many irrelevant hits. At time of review, the most recent incidents were in bulletins 257 (May 2006), 259 (June 2006) and 268 (August 2006); go to www.tuc.org.uk and select "Risks e-bulletin" from the "health and safety" menu in the "directory".

 

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Lifting definitions

Definitions in LOLER 1998, the Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002 and the Lifts Regulations 1997:

• "lifting equipment" is work equipment for lifting or lowering loads and includes attachments used for anchoring, fixing or supporting it (1998)
    n     a "lifting operation" is an operation concerned with the lifting or lowering of a load (1998)
• "load" includes a person (1998)
• a "lift" is an appliance serving specific levels, having a car moving along a fixed course and inclined at an angle of more than 15° to the horizontal (1997)
• "accessory for lifting" is defined in LOLER 1998 as "work equipment for attaching loads to machinery for lifting" but re-defined in 2002 as "lifting equipment for attaching loads to machinery for lifting".

 

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Categories:
Construction, Article, Lifting operations, Work equipment

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