HEALTH AND SAFETY 31
The High Five
By
Chris Coetzee , Health and Safety Consultant , OHSS Consulting
Five high-risk height areas where plumbers need to ensure they prepare for and execute the work in a safe manner .
You have a deadline for a job and are working safely like the procedures tell you to . Everything is going well and then you are told to stop working , because the safety officer is going to give another toolbox talk on fall risk ( danger of falling from a height ).
You didn ’ t fall , and you and your teammates are working safely , so why should you stop working and listen ? Well , imagine for a minute that on another site , there was a team just like yours . They also worked according to the procedures , but one employee did not hook up while working at heights and fell to a lower level , injuring their spine . The injured employee was rushed to hospital and will be paralysed and never walk again .
The work on this site had to stop and an investigation for incidents had to take place . The area where work was being carried out at heights needs to be reassessed to see if everything was done to prevent a person from falling . Would you agree that this is something you should know about ? This could be something that could also happen to you and your teammates .
If you know that this type of hazard exists and the potential to fall from heights is possible , you would be more aware of the dangers and then act if you see something wrong .
As a plumber , there will be times for you to work at an elevated position and it is at these times where you and your team must be fully aware of the hazards and risks .
Heights Risk Area # 1 | Roof When it comes to working on a roof , many plumbers will state that the work being performed is not “ construction ” in nature and thus the requirements of the Construction Regulations 2014 do not apply to the work being performed . Does this mean then that we do not have any safety requirements which we can use to work safely on a roof ? The Construction Regulations 2014 would in effect still be applicable to any work that is done where an employee would be required to work on or from a roof .
First consider our scenario of a site where an employee did fall due to not being hooked up at heights . The information from the investigation would be of great benefit to us , even if we were not working at heights , as it gives us a clear understanding of what went wrong . Why is this important ? Because it allows us to set a ‘ benchmark ’.
Benchmarking is a systematic process that compares an organisation ' s health and safety performance and processes to others in the same industry or against industry standards .
With this benchmark , we can tailor our next site to a higher set of safety standards so that we do not have a repeat of the previous incident and try to achieve a safer working environment . With this type of mindset , we start to create a continual improvement system that ultimately hopefully leads to never having the incidents and accidents that are commonplace among plumbers in South Africa .
Height Risk Area # 2 | Ladders Almost every plumber has come across the need to use a ladder in a plumbing installation . Whether it ’ s to access a ceiling or roof , or to work on a geyser , the ladder is an excellent tool to give you a safe platform to work on while allowing you adequate reach of the work area . No doubt though , you have seen the videos of people using ladders where accidents have happened . Either the ladder gave way or the person fell from the ladder . In almost all these videos , the cause of the accident is clear : it ’ s not the ladder , but the way the ladder was set up or used .
If it is a ladder that is used in conjunction with a scaffold it must comply to SANS 10085 Section 10.7 . For construction related work where there is a fall , then the Construction Regulations 10 : Fall Protection must be adhered to .
General Safety Regulation 13 ( a ) spells out the legislation regarding all other uses of ladders for access to ensure it is a safe means of access .
For a straight ladder being used to access a platform :
• For every 4m you go up , take the ladder 1m away from the structure
• Ensure three points of contact
• Only one person per ladder
• Ladders are designed as ‘ one man ’ working devices with sufficient strength to support one person as well as his tools
• The ladder is stable and has stable footing
• There is top support
• The ladder is set up correctly
• No tools or equipment can fall off
• It is the right ladder for the work you are doing
• It has been inspected and is safe to use
• Your ladder is too short if you are reaching to get on or off the ladder
• The ladder should extend past the platform at least 900mm to allow for a person to hold the ladder with both hands while stepping onto or off the ladder
• Using a ladder in this manner will cause the ladder to shift under the weight of a person and increase the potential for a fall
February 2025 Volume 30 I Number 12 www . plumbingafrica . co . za