Lifting Equipment and Lifting Operations
Most workplaces have the need to carry out lifting and handling of goods, which creates a range of risks that need to be assessed.
Where your employees do the work of lifting and carrying there is a risk of injury from manual handling.
The use of mechanical equipment can eliminate many of the risks involved with manual handling. However, this leads to a different set of risks with the potential for far more serious incidents such as:
- The overturning of a crane or forklift truck
- The failure of the lifting equipment or crane
- The failure of the chains or wire rope slings
The seriousness of the consequences is such that lifting equipment and lifting operations are covered by detailed legislation. The Regulations require that you:
- Must ensure the lifting equipment is of adequate strength and stability
- Should install and position lifting equipment to reduce the risk of loads striking people
- Must mark all equipment with its safe working load
- Must ensure that any lifting operation is suitably planned by a competent person
- Must ensure that lifting equipment is subject to thorough examination and inspection by a competent person before first use after installation and/or modification and on a regular basis.
- Must report any defects found during examination by a competent person to the appropriate enforcing authority i.e. the Local authority or Health and Safety Executive
