Fatal 3 - Work at height
17% of fatalities in the industry involve a fall from height

Fatalities or serious injuries incurred when individuals fall, often onto hard services or plant. In most cases this is attributable to a combination of factors such as failing to follow a safe system of work, a fault in a safety device or a failure to use it, the individual being distracted, poorly designed equipment in relation to operator access and egress.
Operatives are exposed to risks associated with working at height whilst undertaking daily activities such as loading, inspecting silos and other processing plants, sampling, access and egress from mobile plant and undertaking a wide range of maintenance tasks.
The risks of falls from height can be reduced by the following steps;
- Engineering solutions that remove need to work at height
- Cameras and other automated testing systems that replace manual inspections at height
- Better fixed and mobile plant design
- Improved walkways, access and guard rails
- Use of appropriate harnesses and safety lines
- Better safe systems of work and risk assessment
- Improved monitoring of work at height activities
- Other measures.
MPA Working Group and Other Resources
A working group of MPA members has produced a manager's and an employee's guide to help mitigate the risks associated with working at height. Click on the images to download the pdfs.

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