EQUIPMENT

                                                     

Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 1093

The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005

                              5-(1) An employer who carries out work which is liable to expose any of his employees to risk from vibration
                                      shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk created by that work to the health and safety 
                                     of those employees and the risk assessment shall identify the measures that need to be taken to meet the
                                     requirements of these Regulations. 

FHA do Absolutely Nothing

........................................................................................................................................................................

He started in June 2006

                                                    resignation

finished in September!

FHA Maintenance Team and Health and Safety where Personal Safety Equipment is concerned.

Minutes of  Previous Team Meetings
4 May 2001 (BM,  Not yet Employed)
10.3  R Stimpson enquired whether he could sharpen the mower blades himself saving money for the Association.
 It was agreed by team that this would not be possible as the balance of the blade could be affected.
(An unbalanced blade, would cause more vibration. Did anyone know then, what vibration causes?)

31 Aug 2001 (BM Absent)
PPE
5.5.1   DH requested ear defenders for the 'Swansea' van. This appeared to be a sensible item for all caretakers to receive.
SF to obtain price and refer to 5.4.4.
5.5.2   AL requested eye protectors. This appeared to be a sensible item for all caretakers to receive.
SF to obtain price and refer to 5.4.4.
The maintenance team, had been in existence at least 2 years as far as I know, using  mowers, strimmers and blowers without essential PPE!

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY   (from  RMS Vibration Test Laboratory for the Health and Safety Executive 2003 )
The portable, engine-powered strimmer is identified as a type of machine whose operator can be
subjected to large magnitudes of hand-arm vibration. This is shown to have two sources. One is the
engine. The other, more important on those machines with the worst vibration, is the rotation of an
out-of-balance component, in this case the cutting head.

Five points are also suggested whereby maintenance of strimmers could help to reduce operator
exposure to vibration:
 Engine tune should eliminate misfiring
 Engine tune should limit possibilities for over-speed operation
 Operators need to be observant for incorrect operation of automatic heads, which should be
tested during routing servicing.
 Operators need to be observant for increased unbalance of heads, which should be tested
during routing servicing
 Anti-vibration mounts should be renewed regularly.

Similarly, the elimination of heads with severe unbalance, which is the main problem highlighted by
this study, needs either operator vigilance or a suitable test for the maintenance agent to use to check
this at service intervals.

The machinery were never serviced or employees had any training in their use and were never told about the problems of HAVS 



Broken strimmer guard  A typical broken  guard on a strimmer. It may not look to bad, but the blade,
that cuts the strimmers cord is missing. Uneven lengths of  cord increases the
vibration of the strimmer







A typical hedgecutter, Can be lethal. This is a hedgecutter with the two bolts needed                                                         Missing Bolt
 The one I was given by JB had one bolt and a plastic tie holding it.                                 I was told to cut the shrubs with the hedgecutter. I saw it was broken it was held together by one bolt and a plastic tie.(I told JB, when I had repaired it a couple of months earlier, I had emphasised on the importance of checking the tightness of the bolts regularly.I had  even left a spanner in the van  for the job.
 I saw it was not safe to use, but knew from past experiences (see....) that if  I objected on safety grounds, that it would be seen as an excuse to avoid work. I tried to start the hedge cutter (not with any enthusiasm ) but JB could see it was not starting and then  came over and started it. I then carried it by the handle,  towards the shrubs and after three paces the plastic tie moved and the handle came loose. If that had happened whilst I was cutting the shrubs, I could have suffered a serious injury.                                   

A Kitted out New Recruit                                                                                                              well equiped worker

A  kitted out new recruit,
 He is wearing safety glasses.    

The picture on the right is not of          
a Fha worker