New roof work guidance

Citation

(1999), "New roof work guidance", Facilities, Vol. 17 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.1999.06917cab.002

New roof work guidance

New roof work guidance

Keywords Accidents, Health and Safety

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has urged the construction industry to help reduce deaths and injuries from roof work through wider use of safety nets by contractors and greater effort by designers to eliminate fragile materials.

These are key messages in HSE's latest guidance booklet, Health & Safety in Roof Work. Introducing the booklet at a press conference on a Dunstable building site, Sandra Caldwell, HSE's Chief Inspector of Construction, said: "HSE is convinced that if these messages are taken on board and put into practice, fewer people working on roofs will die or be seriously injured."

Between 1986 and 1992, 148 people were killed in falls from or through roofs, the single biggest cause of death and major injury in the construction industry. The new guidance sets out precautions which can help avoid these tragedies. It covers topics including: safe access and places of work; safeguards for different types of work (inspection, refurbishment, cleaning, dismantling etc.); hazards of different roof types; fragility of materials; worker training; the role of clients and designers and planning for safety.

In many cases, the guidance notes, straightforward and well-known physical protection measures such as a proper working platform and edge protection can prevent accidents. Effective fall arrest equipment is essential during industrial roofing projects, HSE's preferred method being properly-installed and maintained safety netting.

"HSE is convinced that there is a substantial role for a greater use of safety nets in industrial roofing than we have seen before", Mrs Caldwell said. "We acknowledge they are not the only way of arresting falls, however it is inspectors' consistent experience that harnesses, for example, are frequently not provided or worn. Where they are used, more often than not they're used incorrectly."

The guidance also urges designers to take proper account of the safety implications of their decisions. They can often eliminate risks by designing them out at source, but they need to understand the problems faced by contractors to realise these benefits. If not, they could be breaking the law, as well as helping to perpetuate one of the biggest workplace killers.

"The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations require that designers have regard to health and safety risks for construction and maintenance workers in their designs", said Mrs Caldwell. "Their role in reducing the presence of fragile materials in roofs is clearly highlighted in the guidance as the most effective area in which they can contribute to improving health and safety."

Today's press conference was held at a site chosen as an example of how some construction professionals, from developers to roof workers, are already working to these principles, not just because of the safety benefits, but for sound commercial reasons. The site, a retail park development by Wilson Bowden Properties Ltd, involved roofing materials specifically designed to be non-fragile and installed using a safety netting fall arrest system.

"This shows that the industry can take on these messages", said Mrs Caldwell. "They can be put into practice; they are realistic in an intensively competitive business environment and they bring real benefits."

"Half of all construction deaths and major injuries are caused by falls; of these, half involve falls from or through roofs. If we reduce these deaths and injuries, we will have a greater impact on the pain and suffering arising from construction accidents than by dealing with any other single issue."

Health & Safety in Roof Work is the latest title in HSE's revised guidance series for the construction industry. The series aims to help all those involved in construction identify the main causes of accidents and ill health and explains how to eliminate hazards and control risks.

Copies of Health & Safety in Roof Work (HSE ref. HSG33), ISBN 0 7176 1425 5, price £8.50 are available from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk COIO 6FS (Tel: 01787-881165) or from good booksellers.