Health and Safety and Sky Installers

[fred]

Why would that have anything to do with it?

[js.b1]

Meanwhile in Afghanistan & Iraq... ... troops have to live and survive in a somewhat different world.

[ARWadsworth]

Well it would take too long to drive to Wakefield.

[cj]

cut

Oh yes and the "Little Witch" boom to fit a 2nd LMB for all those "Naughty" channels. IIR the diode eventually melted the casing if soldered in incorrectly. Good old days of Squarials vs Dish CJ

[tony sayer]

Have you seen that FOI file on how much some in the NHS earn?.

Makes your eyes water .. really does;!...

[Steve Firth]

Or perhaps not. Someone I know is being prosecuted by HSE. He owns a company that installs aerials, and a worker was injured falling from a roof.

The worker had been provided with safety gear, training and considerable dollops of ear-lashing by his supervisor on the subject of safety and working at heights. The worker chose not to use his safety harness that day. Not forgot, chose. He had been reminded by his supervisor to wear the bloody thing and to make sure it was connected to a secure point. He refused to do so, in front of witnesses.

The HSE are attempting to punish the owner on the grounds that he should personally have enforced the rules on a daily basis. So I can see why Sky have passed these stupid rules. They probably know the rules are stupid, but directors generally don't want to be personally fined or sent to jail.

[John]

Wiring in lofts takes longer than chucking the cable over the roof or tacking it down the wall.

Drilling from the inside means any spalling happens outside, drilling from the outside they might even drill into the wrong room. This is not unknown even with non-sSky installers

3. Sky engineers MUST install an eye bolt to the wall and secure the > ladders

So that Sky aren't liable if they fall off.

Owain

Should an employer train people to take risks is the opposite view. Of course not - they are obliged to give instruction on the safest methods. No-one goes to work to get injured.

[John]

Wiring in lofts takes longer than chucking the cable over the roof or tacking it down the wall.

Drilling from the inside means any spalling happens outside, drilling from the outside they might even drill into the wrong room. This is not unknown even with non-sSky installers

3. Sky engineers MUST install an eye bolt to the wall and secure the > ladders

So that Sky aren't liable if they fall off.

Owain

Brilliant tale!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember fred saying something like:

It's the floral hats that get in the way, darling.

[John Rumm]

I get the impression that items of bodgery hiding such as:

designed with these folks in mind!

[Matty F]

What kind of safety harness doesn't allow you to dangle for long periods? I only have abseiling harnesses so I use those. I can dangle as long as I like :)

[Andrew Gabriel]

The problem comes if you're incapacitated or movement restricted, as you might well be after a fall and catch by an arrest harness. If you're dangling upright, you get only a few minutes before blood pressure in upper part of your body drops to low, without normal movement of limbs. Also, it's essential you are rescued by someone who knows about the issue, and knows not to move you such that blood which has become stagnant in the legs for some time does not circulate back into the body without medical support being present to deal with the instant toxic effects on the rest of the body. So the first problem is not dying due to being hung (which doesn't require a noose around the neck), and the second is not dying due to misguided rescue, similar to release from a crush injury.

[Man at B&Q]

A lot. The meaning of the word has changed. Ask any teenager.

MBQ

[Dave Liquorice]

IIRC the main problem is the lack of return blood supply from the legs, leading to pooling of the blood in the legs. Then with more blood than there should be in your legs there isn't enough blood, therefore oxygen, for the brain and you pass out. Passing out when fixed in a vertical position is not good, normally if you pass out you fall over and the blood returns and all is well, that doesn't happen if you are in a fixed vertical position...

Normally movement and muscle pressure forces the blood back up the body (unless you are sat still for long periods, see problems with DVT and long haul flights). When dangling in free space you don't have anything for the legs to work against to shove the blood back up. If concious you can try moving you legs but with nothing to work against, other than you own opposing muscles, it's not very effective. And if you stop 'cause you are knackered the blood pools rather quickly and you pass out soon after stopping.

When abseiling you are not vertical but more or less horizontal and you are working the legs against the cliff face, the suspension point is low and frontal, leading to a more sitting position. A full body Safety Harness has the suspension point about the shoulder blades so you are suspened vertically. Having stirups or a loop so that the legs can be elevated and te body moved into a laid back sitting position would be a useful for those suspened and concious.

[John Rumm]

IIUC there is also a follow on risk from the body attempting its own corrective action - i.e. that of feinting. When free to collapse on the floor this would normally correct lack of blood supply to the brain, however when suspended it only makes matters worse.

[Nightjar]

There are fall arrest systems that allow you to fall all the way to the ground, but at a safe speed. They also have the advantage of being self-retracting, so are always at the right tension and there is no snap load when you fall. They are, of course, a lot more expensive than a simple restraint harness.

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

...

You make 67 sound old.

Colin Bignell

[Ronald Raygun]

I doubt that in such circumstances the body would have much to gain by trying to fool anyone.

[Adrian]

"Nightjar gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt...

[Andrew Gabriel]

Don't know about Sky, but scaffolders always put them in the mortar. They are thicker than the mortar gap anyway.

They are normally removed afterwards, but not made good IME. On one occasion, I asked them to leave them in (used for stringing party lights across the garden).