Question

Discuss Two of the major hazards that employees working on scaffolds are exposed to, and what safety measures can be used to eliminate these hazards?

Answer 1

The two major hazards to the employees working on scaffolds are

1. Falling of the worker from the scaffold during working causing injury or death of worker. The workers during construction of a building can fall from large heights causing grave injury to the worker or sometimes instantaneous death.

2. Collapse of the scaffold also occurs sometimes due to negligence in construction of scaffold or due to overloading of the scaffold. This sudden collapsing of the scaffold can cause injury or death to multiple workers working on the scaffold and therefore stability of scaffold should be properly checked.

Safety Measures that can be used to eliminate these hazards are

1. Scaffolds should be provided with guardrails system when it's height exceeds 3 meters.

2. Cross braces should be provided to increase their stability

3. A ladder should be used to access scaffold instead of climbing

4. Workers should not be allowed to work on slippery or wet scaffolds

5. For proper bearing of scaffold on ground base plates should be used.

6. Scaffolds should be made of sound and rigid material to be able to carry their own weight plus 3 - 4 times maximum intended weight.

7 . If possible they should be tied or fixed to adjacent building or structure to increase their stability.