In an article first published in the September 2012 edition of The Australian Hospital Engineer, Carl Sachs, managing director of falls prevention specialist, Workplace Access & Safety, explains how and why ‘the most popular safety-related Australian Standard of all time’, AS1657, was recently revised and put out for consultation.
In revised form, the standard – which covers key fall prevention considerations when specifying and using equipment such as step ladders, rungs, or staircases, during building or maintenance – has more than doubled in size, and provides significantly more detail, plus ‘substantial new requirements’.
The most popular safety-related Australian Standard of all time, AS1657, has been revised for the first time in 20 years, and is (now was) open for public comment until 21 September 2012. The document, which covers the selection, design, risk assessment, and testing, of fixed platforms, walkways, stairways, and ladders, has more than doubled in size – from 30 to 75 pages. As a member of the AS1657 committee, I would like to use this article to explain some of the major changes.
Means of access selection
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