Mobile Work Platforms

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The owner must keep a complete and concise record of any information concerning inspections, tests, maintenance and structural, and electronic and machine repair that has a direct bearing on the safety of a portable elevating work platform.

Summary

In Nova Scotia, mobile work platforms are regulated under the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations (N.S. Reg. 52/2013). Mobile work platform or elevating work platform means “a mobile horizontal working surface that provides access and support to a person at a workplace, and that is elevated and lowered by means of a mechanism that complies with Part 23: Scaffolds and Other Elevated Work-platforms.” [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.13]

There are various types of mobile work platforms covered including power operated elevating work platforms; portable, self-propelled, and self-propelled boom-supported elevating work-platforms; crane-supported work-platforms; and mast-climbing work-platforms.

The most common hazard when working in mobile elevated work platforms is falling.

The legislation specifies employer responsibilities to make sure safe work procedures are in place before operating mobile work platforms and are followed during operations. Legislative requirements specify that various standards for the design, construction, erection, maintenance, inspection, monitoring and use of mobile elevated work platforms must be followed. In general, these standards cover design and manufacture criteria, inspection, maintenance, testing, verification, safe operating practices, operator training, and responsibilities of roles.

An employer must:

Elevating work-platforms:

  • Make sure that portable, self-propelled, and self-propelled boom-supported elevating work-platforms are designed, constructed, erected, maintained, inspected, monitored and used following the latest versions of the standards listed in the regulations, as below: [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.13(1)]
    • CSA standard B354.6, “Mobile Elevating Work Platforms-Design, Calculations, Safety Requirements and Testing Methods”
    • CSA standard B354.7, “Mobile Elevating Work Platforms- Safety Principles, Inspection, Maintenance and Operation”
    • CSA standard B354.8, “Mobile Elevating Work Platforms-Operator (Driver) Training” and,
    • CSA standard CSA C225, "Vehicle Mounted Aerial Devices".
  • Make sure that elevating work-platforms used for fire-fighting are designed, constructed, erected, maintained, inspected, monitored, and used following the latest version of the listed standards below: [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.13(2)]
    • NFPA standard NFPA 1901, "Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus"; and,
    • NFPA standard NFPA 1911, "Standard for the Inspection, Maintenance, Testing and Retirement of In Service Automotive Fire Apparatus".
  • Make sure that a record of inspections, tests, repairs, modifications, and maintenance activities, as required by the standards, includes the name and signature of the person or persons who performed the required activities. [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.13(3)]
  • Make sure that fall protection equipment is worn and anchored to a suitable anchorage before operating the mobile work platform equipment, whether or not guardrails are also installed, and following Part 21: Fall Protection (see Fall Protection topic). [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.13(4)]
  • Make sure that a person is not lifted or held aloft in equipment that is not specifically designed for that purpose, including loader buckets or backhoes, except as expressly permitted in the regulations or in some other enactment. [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.16]

Crane-supported work-platforms:

  • Make sure that a crane-supported work-platform is designed, maintained, inspected, and used following the latest version of CSA standard CSA Z150, "Safety Code on Mobile Cranes". [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.14(1)]
  • Make sure an operator of a crane or hoist used to suspend a work-platform has an effective means of constant communication with a person on the platform. [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.14(2)]

Mast-climbing work-platforms:

  • Make sure that a mast-climbing work-platform is designed, constructed, erected, maintained, inspected and used following the latest version of CSA standard listed in the regulations, as below: [N.S. Reg. 52/2013, s. 23.15]
    • CSA standard CSA B354.9, “Design, Calculations, Safety Requirements and Testing Methods for Mast Climbing Work Platforms”
    • CSA standard CSA B354.10, “Safety Use and Best practices for Mast Climbing Work Platforms
    • CSA standard CSA B354.11, “Training for Mast Climbing Work Platforms”

An employee must:

  • When using a mobile elevated platform:
    • Have proper training before operating controls.
    • Know what to do and follow the emergency procedures in the event of an incident.
    • Read, understand, and follow the instructions in the manufacturer's operating manual.
    • Tow only vehicles that are designed specifically for that use.
    • Wear a safety harness with lanyard that is fixed to a platform attachment point.
    • Maintain three-point contact (one hand and two feet, or two hands and one foot) when getting on or off the platform.
    • Maintain firm footing on the platform.
    • Look in the direction of travel and make sure that the path is firm and level. Always be aware of obstructions that may cause the platform to overturn or collide with people, cables, power lines, vehicles, etc.
    • Do not climb on the toe board, mid or top rail.
    • Make sure the access gate is closed.

Legislation

Occupational Safety General Regulations

N.S. Reg. 44/99

Part 1 Title and Definitions

Section 2 Definitions

2. In these regulations,

(a) "Act" means the Occupational Health and Safety Act ;

(aa) "adequate" means sufficient to protect a person from injury or damage to health;

(b) "ALI" means the Automotive Lift Institute;

(ba) "angle of repose" means the angle with the horizontal at which material will no longer flow freely;

(c) "ANSI" means the American National Standards Institute;

(ca) "approved" means approved by the Department or by an agency or authority designated or selected by the Department to make approvals;

(d) "ASME" means the American Society of Mechanical Engineers;

(e) "ASTM" means the American Society for Testing and Materials;

(ea) "CGA" means the Compressed Gas Association;

(f) "CGSB" means the Canadian General Standards Board;

(g) "competent person" means a person who is

(i) qualified because of their knowledge, training and experience to do the assigned work in a manner that ensures the health and safety of every person in the workplace, and

(ii) knowledgeable about the provisions of the Act and regulations that apply to the assigned work, and about potential or actual danger to health or safety associated with the assigned work;

(ga) "compressed air" means air mechanically raised to a pressure higher than atmospheric pressure;

(h) "CSA" means the Canadian Standards Association;

(i) "demolition" means the destruction or removal of all, or part, of an existing building or structure;

(ia) "Department" means the Department of Labour and Advanced Education;

(j) "designated" means, in relation to an employer, appointed in writing by the employer;

(k) "electrical installation" means the wires, machinery, apparatus, appliances, devices, material and equipment used or intended for use for the generation, transmission, distribution, supply and use of electrical power or energy, and includes a power line and power line equipment;

(l) "engineer" means a person who is registered as a member or licensed to practise under the Engineering Profession Act and is competent to do the work being performed;

(m) "firefighter" means

(i) an employee who provides fire suppression services to the public from a fire department within a municipality or local service district, or

(ii) an industrial firefighter;

(n) "guardrail" means a fall protection system consisting of vertical and horizontal members that

(i) are capable of withstanding concentrated forces, as prescribed in these regulations or an applicable standard,

(ii) warn of a fall hazard, and

(iii) reduce the risk of a fall;

(o) "hazardous substance" means chemical or biological material, dangerous goods within the meaning of the Dangerous Goods Transportation Act or a controlled product within the meaning of the Hazardous Products Act (Canada) that is likely to, because of its harmful nature, cause injury or damage to the health or safety of a person exposed to it;

(p) "hoist" means a device or equipment and its structure used for lifting or lowering material, including cranes, an automotive lift, a winch, a chain fall or other similar device, but does not include a lift truck, a power operated elevating work platform, a device to which the Elevators and Lifts Act applies or a hoist that operates in a shaft in the underground at a mine;

(pa) "ITSDF" means the Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation;

(q) "industrial firefighter" means an employee who

(i) is designated to fight fires at the employee's place of employment, and

(ii) is employed by an employer who does not, in the normal course of its business, provide fire suppression services to the public;

(qa) "latest version" means, in relation to a standard or other publication, the latest edition of the standard or publication as supplemented, amended, added to, replaced or superseded;

(r) "lift truck" means a lift truck as defined in the latest version of ANSI standard ANSI/ITSDF B56.1, "Safety Standard for Low Lift and High Lift Trucks";

(s) "locked out" means to have

(i) isolated the energy source or sources from a machine, equipment, tool or electrical installation,

(ii) dissipated any residual energy in a system, and

(iii) secured the isolation of the energy source or sources by an inhibiting device that is operated by a key or other process,

and to have performed a "lock-out" has a similar meaning;

(t) "machine" Repealed. [N.S. Reg. 52/2000, s. 1]

(u) "manufacturer's specifications" means

(i) the written instructions of a manufacturer of a machine, material, tool or equipment that outline the manner in which the machine, material, tool or equipment is to be erected, installed, assembled, started, operated, used, handled, stored, stopped, adjusted, carried, maintained, repaired, inspected, serviced, tested, cleaned or dismantled, and

(ii) a manufacturer's instruction, operating or maintenance manual and drawings respecting a machine, tool or equipment;

(ua) "mobile crane" means a mobile crane to which the latest version of CSA standard CSA Z150 , "Safety Code on Mobile Cranes" applies;

(v) "NFPA" means the National Fire Protection Association;

(va) "overhead crane" means any mechanical device or structure that is used to raise, lower and move material that travels overhead and that incorporates a

(i) power driven drum, bridge and cable or rope,

(ii) single or multiple girder, and

(iii) moveable bridge carrying a moveable or fixed hoisting mechanism,

but does not include wall cranes, cantilever gantry cranes and semi-gantry cranes;

(vb) "personal flotation device" means personal protective equipment that is capable of supporting a person with their head above water without the direct effort of the person wearing the equipment;

(w) "power line" means the above-ground or underground wiring that is used to distribute electricity;

(x) "power line equipment" means the components that are required to distribute electricity by means of a power line;

(y) "power operated elevating work platform" means a mobile horizontal working surface that provides access and support to a person at a workplace, and that is elevated and lowered by means of a mechanism and [that complies with] Part 23: Scaffolds and Other Elevated Work Platforms, of the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations made under the Act, including a standard listed in subsection (4) thereof;

(z) "powered mobile equipment" means self-propelled equipment that is designed to operate on land in conditions other than a public highway, but does not include equipment primarily designed to transport persons, a lift truck or a power operated elevating work platform;

(aa) "SAE" means the Society of Automotive Engineers;

(ab) "structural fire-fighting" means the activities of rescue, fire suppression and conservation of property from fires involving buildings, structures, vehicles, vessels, aircraft or other large objects constructed by human effort;

(ac) "surface mine" means a work or undertaking, other than a trench, for the purpose of opening up, proving, removing or extracting any metallic or non-metallic mineral or mineral bearing substance, rock, earth, clay, sand or gravel by means of an open excavation, and includes a pit or quarry;

(ad) "tower crane" means any mechanical device or structure that

(i) incorporates a power-driven drum and cable or rope and a vertical mast or tower and a jib,

(ii) is of the traveling, fixed or climbing type, and

(iii) is used exclusively for raising, lowering and moving material;

(ae)"trench" means an excavation in which the excavation depth exceeds the excavation width;

(af) "work area" means a location at the workplace at which an employee or self-employed person is or is likely to be working;

(ag) "worked" means drilled, blasted, extracted, excavated, loaded or subjected to other similar work.

[N.S. Reg. 52/2000, s. 1; 151/2003; 53/2013, ss. 1, 93]


Workplace Health and Safety Regulations

N.S. Reg. 52/2013

Part 21 FALL PROTECTION

Section 21.1 Definitions for Part 21

21.1 In this Part,

"arborist" means a person trained and employed, in whole or in part, to climb trees for an economic or scientific purpose, including any of the following:

(i) detecting and treating disease, infections or infestations,

(ii) pruning, spraying or trimming,

(iii) repairing damaged trees,

(iv) assessing growth or harvesting potential;

"body belt" means a body support device that encircles the body at or about the waist;

"energy absorber" means a component of a fall-protection system consisting of a device that dissipates kinetic energy and does not return it to the fall-arrest system or into a person's body;

"fall distance" means the vertical distance a person may fall, measured from the surface where the weight of a person is supported to the surface the person could fall onto;

"fall-arrest system" means a fall-protection system consisting of an assembly of components that arrests a person's fall when properly assembled, used together and connected to a suitable anchorage;

"fall-protection system" means any secondary system that is intended to prevent a person from falling or arrests a fall that occurs, and includes guardrails, temporary flooring, travel-restraint systems, personnel safety nets and fall-arrest systems;

"full-body harness" means a body-holding device, similar to a parachute harness, that transfers suspension forces or impacts during a fall arrest to a person's pelvis or skeleton;

"guardrail" means a fall-protection system consisting of vertical and horizontal members that

(i) are capable of withstanding concentrated forces, as prescribed in these regulations or an applicable standard,

(ii) warn of a fall hazard, and

(iii) reduce the risk of a fall;

"horizontal lifeline" means a flexible line made from wire, fibre rope, wire rope, or rod, with end terminations at both ends, that extends horizontally from one end anchorage to another;

"lanyard" means a flexible line or strap used to secure a full-body harness to an energy absorber, fall-arrester, lifeline or anchorage;

"lifeline" means a component of a fall-protection system consisting of a vertical lifeline or a horizontal lifeline;

"personnel safety net" means a fall-protection system that uses at least 1 net to stop a person who is falling before the person makes contact with a lower level or obstruction;

"elevating work-platform" means a mobile horizontal working surface that provides access and support to a person at a workplace, and that is elevated and lowered by means of a mechanism that complies with Part 23: Scaffolds and Other Elevated Work-platforms;

"safe surface" means an area that meets all of the following criteria:

(i) it is large enough and strong enough to adequately support a person who falls,

(ii) it is level enough to prevent a further fall by a person who has fallen,

"self-retracting device" means a device that arrests a person's fall by performing a tethering function while allowing vertical movement below the device to the maximum working length of the device;

"temporary flooring" means a fall-protection system consisting of a horizontal working surface that is designed, constructed and installed to provide access to areas that do not have permanent flooring by protecting a person from falling through an unprotected opening;

"travel restraint system" means a fall-protection system that will prevent a person from reaching an unprotected edge or opening;

"vertical lifeline" means a flexible lifeline with an end termination on the top end that is connected to an anchorage or anchorage connector and hangs vertically from where it is connected;

"work-platform" means a raised temporary horizontal working surface that provides access and support to a person at a workplace;

"work-positioning system" means an assembly of components that, when properly assembled and used together, supports a person in a position or location so that the person's hands are free in the work position, but does not include a boatswain's chair, ladder, rope access or scaffold.

Part 23 SCAFFOLDS AND OTHER ELEVATED WORK-PLATFORMS

Section 23.13 Elevating work-platforms

23.13 (1) An employer must ensure that portable, self-propelled and self-propelled boom-supported elevating work-platforms are designed, constructed, erected, maintained, inspected, monitored and used in accordance with the latest version of the following applicable standards:

(a) CSA standard CSA B354.1 , "Portable Elevating Work Platforms";

(b) CSA standard CSA B354.2 , "Self-Propelled Elevating Work Platforms";

(c) CSA standard CSA B354.4 , "Self-Propelled, Boom-Supported Elevating Work Platforms";

(d) CSA standard CSA C225 , "Vehicle Mounted Aerial Devices".

(2) An employer must ensure that elevating work-platforms used for fire-fighting are designed, constructed, erected, maintained, inspected, monitored and used in accordance with the latest version of the following applicable standards:

(a) NFPA standard NFPA 1901, "Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus";

(b) NFPA standard NFPA 1911, "Standard for the Inspection, Maintenance, Testing and Retirement of In Service Automotive Fire Apparatus".

(3) An employer must ensure that a record of inspections, tests, repairs, modifications and maintenance activities required by the applicable standards in subsections (1) and (2) includes the name and signature of the person or persons who performed the required activities.

(4) Whether or not guardrails are also installed, before operating the equipment in subsection (1) or (2), an employer must ensure, in accordance with Part 21: Fall Protection, that fall-arrest equipment is worn and anchored to a suitable anchorage.

Section 23.14 Crane-supported work-platforms

23.14 (1) An employer must ensure that a crane-supported work-platform is designed, maintained, inspected and used in accordance with the latest version of CSA standard CSA Z150 , "Safety Code on Mobile Cranes".

(2) An operator of a crane or hoist used to suspend a work-platform must have an effective means of constant communication with a person on the platform.

Section 23.15 Mast-climbing work-platforms

23.15 An employer must ensure that a mast-climbing work-platform is designed, constructed, erected, maintained, inspected and used in accordance with the latest version of CSA standard CSA B354.5 , "Mast-climbing work platforms".

Section 23.16 Lifting persons in certain equipment prohibited

23.16 Except as expressly permitted in these regulations or in some other enactment, a person must not be lifted or held aloft in equipment that is not specifically designed for that purpose, including loader buckets or backhoes.

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