The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) wants those handling large sheets of glass to write good risk assessments after a person was struck and injured by several sheets of glass falling from a crate held on a metal stacking platform (stillage). Construction inspectors are also witnessing examples of poor practice during routine visits.

The danger arises when workers are packing and unpacking wooden crates containing large sheets of glass, on steeply inclined stillages. It appears that such crates are commonly used to import large pieces of specialist glass from continental Europe.

HSE’s has reviewed the arrangements for handling glass, and suggests that there are a number of circumstances (site conditions, storage arrangements, ground and weather conditions) in which glass sheets can become unstable when held vertically on steel stillages.

Control measures should be considered, taking into account the sequence of work to reduce or control the risk. This may include a positive system of excluding workers from any area where they may be struck by falling sheets.

HSE has also published Workplace health and safety: Glazing which can be downloaded at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg212.htm

Source

Construction Manager

Postscript

For more information on “Glass handling, storage and transport”, see www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/34-4.htm