Hse Update URGENT Flail heads

[Andy Collins]

Following the initial mention here on Arbtalk I immediately took mine out of service, and took and angle grinder to all chains so it cannot be inadvertantly used by anyone grabbing out of the waste bin. These things are dangerous, I know of an incident where a worker was hit by flying debris ( a small stone) it went through the shin bone and lodged in the back of the calf. At first the local A&E thought it was a rifle bullet, and asked if he was aware he had been shot at.

[Yorkshireman]

The question refered to refunds I dont know , I would doubt it as in order to retail the item it must have first been through the CE approval procedure, I imagine that the approval will have been based on a defined protocol & accepted use

 

the issue of saftey however cannot be directly compared from machine to machine,

in the same manner you could with a larger cc chainsaw/ sprocket combo relevant to greater chainspeed, when this item is used it is in my own opinion a very handy addition to the toolbox however , the varients are too wide

re machine, task & application ie scrub thicket , bramble etc as the potential for these areas to be contaminated with third party debris flytipped or otherwise

therefore the Hse have correctly stepped in..

 

Back to the tractor mounted pto flail

[Gareth Dalzell]

Just looking throught the small print now and it looks like based on the "harmonised EU reg's" these pieces of equipment were never cleared for use on this type of machine - the item itself is CE marked but that doesn't mean in it's use on a strimmer/brushcutter it meets the required safety standard. I see a problem brewing here with the suppliers and how it's has been marketed and sold to the end user. I must get out my NEBOSH Cert notes as I remember something similar there about end user.

 

Also I see the HSE in their target audience mentioned the tree sector and construction sectors but has totally missed their main user as being Amenity Hort and landscape contractors and maintenance contractors. As the landscape sector has now been generally removed from CITB scope and construction sector and placed under a different area for funding/training and promotion they may need to amend their target audience if they want to get the message to their main users.