Safety Bonds and School

[Brian]

Just to dig this back up Can I ask is safety bonding a legal requirement or just recommended practice. If it is a legal requirement is there an online link to show this?

 

You have a legal duty under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) to provide a safe working environment for 'employees' and under section 3 for the 'public'.

 

Your risk assessment will show if safety bonds are required.

[V.A.]

Just to dig this back up Can I ask is safety bonding a legal requirement or just recommended practice. If it is a legal requirement is there an online link to show this?

 

You have a legal duty under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) to provide a safe working environment for 'employees' and under section 3 for the 'public'.

 

Your risk assessment will show if safety bonds are required.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just to add to that, I'm not sure of the exact source of this, but my drama teacher is adamant that HSE guidelines call for all equipment to have 3 points of contact - the clamp, the cable, and the safety chain/wire.

[peternewman]

Just to add to that, I'm not sure of the exact source of this, but my drama teacher is adamant that HSE guidelines call for all equipment to have 3 points of contact - the clamp, the cable, and the safety chain/wire.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So your drama teacher is happy to use the cable as a second/third point of suspension, despite the fact you may have for example a Mac hanging off an IEC lead, and most of us know how loose they can be. ;)

 

I think I will keep well away from your rig.

 

PN

[Dave]

Just to dig this back up Can I ask is safety bonding a legal requirement or just recommended practice. If it is a legal requirement is there an online link to show this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Let me present my view on this subject. If anyone disagrees, feel free to tell me that I'm talking nonsense.

 

I will use the more formal term secondary suspension rather than safety bond. A secondary suspension is simply something designed to prevent a load from falling if the primary suspension fails.

 

Unless it is stipulated in your public entertainment licence or similar, there are no explicit legal requirements to use a secondary suspension. I agree with Brian's earlier proposal that suspension of a load is not a lifting operation and therefore not covered by LOLER. You see many examples of loads suspended by one fixing - eg every chandelier I've seen has just had a single chain on it. Also, what about pendant lamp fittings where everything is suspended by the flex?

 

Apart from entertainment licences, there are no special laws that treat theatres and theatre lighting differently to anything else. There seems to be a lot of confusion over this - people see a lantern with a hook clamp and automatically think it's illegal without a secondary suspension.

 

(As an aside, your insurance company might insist that you use secondary suspensions. If you don't, then you have no insurance, which is almost certainly illegal. But that's a an insurance requirement, not a legal one).

 

It therefore comes down to the general H&S legislation, which requires you to use risk assessment to ascertain the measures you implement to produce a safe working environment and to provide safe systems of work. One of the principles of risk assessment is that if the chance of something happening is extremely remote, the risk is regarded as negligible and you don't have to take any steps to manage that risk.

 

So, in many situations, the chance of a lantern falling is extremely remote and so (IMHO) no secondary suspension is needed. I repeat, no secondary suspension (ie safety bond/chain) is needed (puts on bullet-proof vest and runs away).

 

However, there are situations where the risk is higher, and in these cases you are likely to need a secondary suspension. A non-exhaustive list is:

• collision risk from flown scenery/curtains etc
  
• vibration/motorised fittings
  
• unbalanced loading (eg "over-rigged" lantern)
  

Thermal effects should also be considered - repeated heating/cooling can cause fasteners to loosen and possibly undo. I use nyloc nuts on all my hook clamps for this reason.

 

If you conclude that a secondary suspension is needed, then it has to be suitable for the task. In many cases this will require you to use something that is constructed to a standard and tested, especially if the loading will be dynamic.

 

[VA - I've never heard of this requirement before and I think your teacher is mistaken, although HSE guidance does state that everything should have a secondary suspension.]

[Tomo]

I have always worked to the principle of designing to allow single-point failures without disaster.

 

Even though the chance of a correctly-fitted and perfect condition hook-clamp failing is very low, the chance of somebody not tightening it up enough or forgetting to tighten it at all, vibration working it loose, or some other failure (cracked cheap bolt?) cannot really be determined.

If that hook detached from the bar or lantern from the hook and I had no secondary suspension, I'd get disaster.

 

By fitting a secondary suspension, I cover my arse against both poor maintenance of hook clamp and poor rigging by a numpty on the ground. It is a lot easier for the crew boss or local tech to scan along a bar and check that all safeties are fitted before flying it than for them to check all hook clamps are good and correctly tightened.

 

It also has the great benefit that I do not have to do a separate risk assessment for every odd way to hang a light. Overhung, underhung, sideways, whatever, so long as I ensure that the light doesn't wibble and the safety is attached to a good loadbearing place sufficiently high up, I know I have taken reasonable steps to stop that thing falling.

 

So you could say that I use safeties because it is easier to do so.

[Chris_R]

Not exactly lighting, but technical none the less, How about projectors?

In college and church we have projectors rigged overhead on brackets like:

http://www.cinemabox.co.uk/Assets/Graphics/Accessories/accessories-bracket-sms.jpg

and as far as I can see (I've never looked at one in great detail) they don't have secondary suspension.

As its been mentioned its not the law to have a secondary suspension, but shouldn't they?!

just a thought!

[djw1981]

Not exactly lighting, but technical none the less, How about projectors?

In college and church we have projectors rigged overhead on brackets like:

http://www.cinemabox.co.uk/Assets/Graphics/Accessories/accessories-bracket-sms.jpg

and as far as I can see (I've never looked at one in great detail) they don't have secondary suspension.

As its been mentioned its not the law to have a secondary suspension, but shouldn't they?!

just a thought!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

For that matter, see also plasmas hung from th ceiling. I think it tends to depend on whether they are an install (which Church projectors tend to be) or a temporary setup. I apprecviate that teh law sees no difference in this, but the method of fixing is often very different.

 

eg, for a show in a theatre recently, we have hook clamp gyroscope things to suspend our projectirs from. For all reasons listed above, these are saftied to the scaff bar they are hung from. Safety runs through carry handle on projector and around LX bar. One of our ones in church also had a safty on it, but that was more to do with the fact that the we knew where the safety was then, and any numpty playing football couldn't knock it about.

 

Many permanent lighting installs (I am thinking of one building at Uni) has a different type of fitting to the usual hook clamp, and has no secondary suspension.

[Ben Langfeld]

I know that safety chains are now not an acceptable method of secondary suspension and safety bonds should now be used, but could someone please point me in the direction of an official document which states this?

[Bryson]

Certainly. LOLER (LIFTING OPERATIONS AND LIFTING EQUIPMENT REGULATIONS 1998) is what you want. A short guide to the regs: Linky

 

From that guide:

you should ensure that all lifting equipment is:

 

visibly marked with any appropriate information

to be taken into account for its safe use, eg safe

working loads. Accessories, eg slings, clamps etc,

should be similarly marked.

 

Obviously, stuff cannot be marked until properly tested. Safety chains are not "marked" and as such cannot be used. If they were, they would be ok...but they aren't.

 

I'd link you to the full regs, but the page crashes Safari every time...

[DSA]

Just to clarify, are you saying that any theatre etc. who is using safety chains for secondary suspension is breaking the law? (if they are not SWL stamped)

 

David

[Bryson]

Technically yes, I suppose so. But the point is that you have a reasonable time in which to comply with new regulations. From the same guide:

If you have duties under LOLER you will be given time

to assimilate the new requirements. However, where

there are serious risks, or the requirements are not

new, inspectors will be prepared to take firm

enforcement action.

[J Pearce]

So basically:

 

All new equipment should be bought with safety bonds

Safety chains should be phased out by 20xx

 

Am I right?

[Bryson]

In a nutshell, yes. It's the xx that'll cause debate

[Ben Langfeld]

Thanks muchly Bryson, that's a big help.

[SceneMaster]

Safety bonds being the piece of steel wire and a karabiner? (I know this but I just thought I would check that we are not talking at cross purposes).

 

What makes this anymore safe than a safety chain rated at 60kg?