CPA Bulletin

www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > February/March 2021 17 TECHNICAL Technical Hot Tub Safe Lifting Guidance Following a number of high profile incidents involving the lifting and placing of hot tubs to mainly domestic customers, the CPA was approached by the British and Irish Spa and Hot Tub Association (BISHTA) to co-develop guidance for the safe lifting of hot tubs, exercise spas (sometimes referred to as swim spas) and one-piece pools. The need for guidance follows an incident in North Wales where a hot tub was being lifting over a house and became detached from the lifting accessories when a tag line became snared on part of the house it was being lifted over. Although there were no injuries, lifting incidents involving hot tubs are not uncommon and are centred around either a falling load or an overturn of the crane. Other incidents involving hot tub lifting include the overturning of a crane which not only damaged neighbouring properties, but also ruptured a gas-supply line and caused closure of a nearby tram network whilst recovery of the crane took place. As a number of incidents involved the use of a lorry loader, the Association of Lorry Loader and Manufacturer’s (ALLMI) are also participating in the project. The three associations - CPA, BISHTA and ALLMI - are in the process of developing a set of safe lifting standards for these load types and for CPA, will be converted into a Crane Interest Group-issued Technical Information Notice (TIN) on completion of the joint project. In the case of CPA crane members, the principles and requirements of safe lift planning are well understood and implemented, but the specific factors relating to hot tubs may be less well known. For example, the pipework for new hot tubs are pressure tested during manufacture and although drained afterwards for shipment, trapped residual water sometimes remains in the pipework which adds to the weight to be lifted. The weight of any covers can often add to the overall lift weight, not always identified on manufacturer’s data, and covers on some big swim spas can add a significant weight for which these and other accessories such as steps, etc. should be lifted separately. A large percentage of hot tubs are delivered to domestic customers who would not have the requisite knowledge to plan or control the lift and therefore the guidance makes clear on the responsibilities of crane hire and contract lifting with the advice that domestic customers should not be offered a crane hire agreement. On completion of the guidance, BISHTA, ALLMI and CPA intend to host a joint webinar in early spring to launch and promote the guidance to their respective sectors, with an invite to be automatically forwarded to CPA members. The Strategic ForumPlant Safety Group (SFPSG), in conjunction with the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF), are currently working on new sets of guidance material for access platforms and include Secondary Guarding, EN280 Part 2 - Suspended Loads, and using MEWPs as an overhead anchor point. IPAF are chairing the Secondary Guarding and EN280 projects whilst the CPA are chairing the Overhead Anchor Point project. The working groups for both the Secondary Guarding and Overhead Anchor Point projects continue their work although the EN280 project may suffer additional delays as EN280 Part 1 is still in development by the CEN Group and must be agreed before Part 2 is published. Once published, the Plant Safety Group may resume to finish development of the supporting guidance. The request for the overhead anchor point guidance originated from the construction steelwork sector where their members are engaged in the unloading of steel from a trailer bed in an open area, for which suitable anchoring points for personal fall arrest equipment was not available, so were using an elevated MEWP boom platform as a temporary anchor point. The MEWP sector took the view that although not best practice, as it was being undertaken - it was better to produce guidance so that the dangers could be better understood and how to evaluate the activity for the safety possible methods, rather than ignoring the issue. Therefore, the primarymessage of a document was that it is not a recommended practice but if undertaken, a number of considerations need to be taken into account - which were listed and stretched to over five pages. The steel sector subsequently indicated that other, safer methods are now being used and most significantly, a number of principal contractors were restricting this practice on their sites as the potential issues outweighed the benefits. Furthermore, a number of MEWP manufacturers were further divided on authorising this practice on their respective machines. A key requirement of any document bearing the SFPSG logo is full support from industry, manufacturers and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the decision has been taken to remove this project under the auspices of the SFPSG. The working group recognise the need for some form of basic guidance fromwhich they will review and seek other methods. Strategic Forum Plant Safety Group - Forthcoming MEWP Guidance Publications