Hand-Arm Vibration – Shock Truth!

[John Hancock]

I am surprised that you didn't have something already in place' date=' being LA, John.

 

As a contractor, I had to attend an awareness course about it with our LA back in 2004.

 

Our LA teams have to log their usage of machinery every day and hand in the sheet at the end of the week.[/quote']

 

I am too! Better late than never I suppose.

 

I asked the guys testing why don’t they just go on the manufacture guide-lines – I was told these tests have to be carried out ‘in the real world’ and the manufactures vibration figures were attained in test conditions and were not a real representation of the saws vibration.

[Yorkshireman]

I am too! Better late than never I suppose.

 

I asked the guys testing why don’t they just go on the manufacture guide-lines – I was told these tests have to be carried out ‘in the real world’ and the manufactures vibration figures were attained in test conditions and were not a real representation of the saws vibration.

 

But where would the a court/tribunal go for info

the manufacturers ................ as it is highly unlikely that a piece of equipment could be reliably presented or tested that could be relied upon against all reasonable doubt as to be an accurate demonstration of the equipment used by an employee, whom may be seeking damages / compensation ... therefore they go to the manufacturers data ..

Edited June 22, 2009 by Yorkshireman

[Stephen Blair]

being la john, those times could last you all week:001_tongue:

it would be interesting to see what a hedecutter and polesaw would allow.

[John Hancock]

But where would the a court/tribunal go for info

the manufacturers ................ as it is highly unlikely that a piece of equipment could be reliably presented or tested that could be relied upon against all reasonable doubt as to be an accurate demonstration of the equipment used by an employee, whom may be seeking damages / compensation ... therefore they go to the manufacturers data ..

 

At least my employer has now made a benchmark by getting and paying for an independent test on all equipment (not just the tree team).

 

The HSE states –‘ By law, as an employer, you must assess and identify measures to eliminate or reduce risks from exposure to hand-arm vibration so that you can protect your employees from risks to their health’

 

I’m not going to knock the council for doing what they are supposed to do.

[MasterBlaster]

Wow, I can't believe all the hoops ya'll have to jump through. Lordy!

[Andy Collins]

Though its admirable that this is being addressed to make the work-place a safer and better place, I cant help thinking all this is over-whelming. We have people who struggle to recognise the obvious and lethal site hazards, what real chance is there of anyone working out full power trigger time on the saw, blower and so on. More so, how many employers are going to say to the lads, sorry but you'll have to finish early cos trigger time is up?

All sounds great on paper, but in the real world...........yeah right!

[Stephen Blair]

our council has been doing this for years now, our local lawnmower guy bought the machine to test them. since i have cut back my hours and reduced the amount of hedgecutting i am doing my hands are a lot better

[Rupe]

I agree! Better off not knowign IMO !!

 

But, if you translated those times in to fuel usage you could better judge how long you can use a saw?

 

i.e. if 44minutes is the allowed time at full throttle, then clamp the saw down and run it at full throttle for 44mins and see how much fuel it uses. Stop the stopwatch to re fule as required.

 

My guess is quite a lot of fuel! Maybe 4-5 tanks worth. So even if we have the saw on tick over quite a lot whic means we are usign it less then, 4-5 tanks is quite a bit of sawing, and to allow for the wastage durign tickover then maybe we could use 7-8 tanks of fuel. Now that is quite bit.

 

I'm not sayign we should all do this as there is no way I'm running my 66 on full power to see what fuel I can waste, sorry use! Maybe someone workign for the LA could do the experiment??

[combined tree services]

i stronly intend to carry on working in the way in which every decent tree surgeon has done for many years . i run my own small company and if i were to comply with hse demands then my company would fold , how am i meant to cary out half a reduction or in fact how am i meant to ring down half a masive pine stem because myself and the other climber have used our allowed exposure time , frankly its a big pile of crap ? nothing stops the woman next door using her rabbit for hours on end , think of the dammage thats doing to her !!!!!

[josharb87]

i stronly intend to carry on working in the way in which every decent tree surgeon has done for many years . i run my own small company and if i were to comply with hse demands then my company would fold , how am i meant to cary out half a reduction or in fact how am i meant to ring down half a masive pine stem because myself and the other climber have used our allowed exposure time , frankly its a big pile of crap ? nothing stops the woman next door using her rabbit for hours on end , think of the dammage thats doing to her !!!!!

 

pmsl!