On 02/04/2015 14:19, michael adams wrote:
"Nightjar .me.uk" "cpb"@ insert my surname here wrote in message
...
On 02/04/2015 04:48, john james wrote:
...
But he isn't lifting it, just carrying it...

The same guidelines apply to handling as well as to lifting. Once you start moving
weights like that around manually, there is a high risk of injury.

I'd imagine that would only apply to people with no actual experience of doing
such work. Or with no training, which in the past was simply being shown
how to do it, by an experienced person.

Otherwise in the past it would have been impossible to find anyone
to do such work, as they'd all be injuring themselves and unable to earn
a living.

As it's unlikely that random members of the public are going to want
to lift sacks of coal, all that applying Health and Safety regulations
does in such circumstances, is denigrate the experienced coalman
in assuming that he doesn't have the skill or experience to do the
job he's being doing for years, without injuring himself.

That does not mean he has not been at risk of injury all that time.


Patronising ? Moi ?

There is a hierarchy of ways to protect people from risk. At the top end
is isolating them from it entirely, although fully automated coal
delivery is probably a long way in the future. Training alone comes at
the bottom, as an absolute last resort, when nothing else is possible.
Providing them with the proper equipment to do the job with a minimum of
risk comes somewhere around the middle.


--
Colin Bignell