Falls from ladders are common across all industries, and they can have devastating effects on the lives of those that are injured. Serious injuries have even occurred when workers have fallen from the bottom rungs of a ladder – make sure you take steps today to check your ladders and train workers to use them properly.
5 Top Tips to Ensure Safe Ladder Use
- Make sure your risk assessments for work at height activities cover the use of ladders, and whether they are the most suitable item to use to access places at height. Ladders can be a good option for low-risk, short duration work of roughly 30 minutes.
- Where possible, attach leaning ladders to items being accessed to prevent them from slipping, or have them be footed by another person. Ladders should be of a suitable height – not too long and not too short for the area being accessed.
- Label ladders so that you can keep an inventory of those that you own to ensure they are regularly checked. Every three to four months is a good baseline.
- Train workers in the correct method of using a ladder, and ensure they maintain three points of contact at all times. Teach them to check the ground environment first – this should be flat and free from contaminants like water or oil.
- Ensure that workers undertake a pre-use check of the ladder before they use it, looking for any defects in the stiles or rungs, and checking that the platform and feet are in a good condition.
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