Experiments on safety in the use of portable ladders

Häkkinen, Kari; Pesonen, Jussi; Rajamäki, Erkki

doi:10.1016/0376-6349(88)90002-8

Cited by 40 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Among published studies that have provided some data on ladderfall injury circumstances, most have also reported that the majority of falls occur while the victim is working on the ladder, ascending, or descending (14,15,16). This finding is consistent with ours where workers were most often standing or sitting while performing work directly from the ladder (51.3%), or climbing down (27.8%) or up the ladder (11.4%) at the time of their fall.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…There have also been a limited number of studies on ladder safety in the safety engineering literature; however, most focus on straight, portable ladders (14,15,16). Although Häkkinen and colleagues (16) reported that straight ladders were involved in 70% of the most serious work-related ladder injuries, and sliding at the base was the most common (50%) preceding event for an injury, the circumstances and relative contribution of straight versus step ladder falls remain unclear.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Work-related falls from ladders – a follow-back study of US emergency department cases

Lombardi

Smith²,

Courtney³

et al. 2011

Scand J Work Environ Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Work-related falls from ladders – a follow-back study of US emergency department cases

Lombardi

Smith²,

Courtney³

et al. 2011

Scand J Work Environ Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Earlier work by Dewar (1977), Häkkinen et al (1988) and Irvine and Vejvoda (1977) demonstrated that without any instruction on how to set up a ladder or what is the recommended angle, ladder users generally tend to setup ladders at shallower angles than 75.5°. Furthermore, Irvine and Vejvoda (1977) indicated that the application of the anthropometric method would also result on average in shallower angles than the recommended by the standard 75.5°.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research to improve extension ladder angular positioning

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A leading cause for extension ladder fall incidents is a slide-out event usually related to suboptimal ladder inclination. An improved ladder positioning method or procedure could reduce the risk of ladder stability failure and the related fall injury. The objective of the study was to comparatively evaluate the effectiveness of a multimodal angle indicator with other existing methods for extension ladder angular positioning.Twenty experienced and 20 inexperienced ladder users participated in the study. Four ladder positioning methods were tested in a controlled laboratory environment with 4.88 m (16 ft) and 7.32 m (24 ft) ladders in extended and retracted positions. The positioning methods included a noinstruction method, the current standard anthropometric method, and two instrumental methodsa bubble level indicator, and a multimodal indicator providing direct feedback with visual and sound signals. Performance measures included positioning angle and time.The results indicated that the anthropometric method was effective in improving the extension ladder positioning angle (p < 0.001); however, it was associated with considerable variability and required 50% more time than no-instruction. The bubble level indicator was an accurate positioning method (with very low variability), but required more than double the time of the noinstruction method (p < 0.001). The multimodal indicator improved the ladder angle setting as compared to the no-instruction and anthropometry methods (p < 0.001) and required the least time for ladder positioning among the tested methods (p < 0.001).An indicator with direct multimodal feedback is a viable approach for quick and accurate ladder positioning. The main advantage of the new multimodal method is that it provides continuous feedback on the angle of the device and hence does not require repositioning of the ladder. Furthermore, this indicator can be a valuable tool for training ladder users to correctly apply the current ANSI A14 standard anthropometric method in ladder angular positioning.The multimodal indicator concept has been further developed to become a hand-held tool in the form of a smart phone application. *Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 304 285 6268; fax: +1 304 285 6047. psimeonov@cdc.gov (P. Simeonov).

show abstract

“…synchronous contra lateral hand and foot movement) were reported as the most common climbing styles; however, an individual can change his/her climbing style even within the same ladder climb (Hammer 1992). Both Dewar (1977) and Hakkinen (1988) reported the use of both ladder rungs and rails as handholds. Still there is disagreement among safety professionals about the advantages and disadvantages of using rungs as hand holds versus rails during ladder climbing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomechanical Aspects of Fixed Ladder Climbing: Style, Ladder Tilt and Carrying

Armstrong

Young

Woolley

et al. 2009

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study aims to understand the effects of climbing style (hands on rungs vs. hands on rails), ladder pitch and bank, and carrying objects on hand and foot forces. An instrumented ladder was constructed to OSHA 1910.27 Fixed Ladder Standards. Hand and foot forces were recorded for six male and six female subjects as they ascended and descended the ladder. Although significant inter and intra subject climbing styles were observed for rung and rail climbing, it is still possible to draw important conclusions about the effects of climbing style, ladder pitch and bank, and carrying objects up and down ladders. Most of the work to ascend and descend the ladder is performed with the lower limbs. The hands must constantly exert force to prevent falling from a vertical ladder. Less hand force was exerted on the rails than on the rungs. Hand placement during rung climbing is constrained by rung spacing, while hand placement during rail climbing is determined by climber preference. It can be shown that required hand force is related to vertical hand placement and body center of mass position. Even though less resultant hand force was exerted during rail climb, the lateral component of hand force was greater for rail climbing than for rung climbing. Lateral hand forces may tend to destabilize the climber from the center of the ladder. Tilting the ladder forward reduces hand forces, which is consistent with the biomechanics of climbing and with previous studies. Tilting the ladder laterally did not significantly affect peak hand and foot forces, but it did affect the observed load/unload cycle time for hand and foot climbing movements.

show abstract

Experiments on safety in the use of portable ladders

Cited by 40 publications

References 3 publications

Work-related falls from ladders – a follow-back study of US emergency department cases

Work-related falls from ladders – a follow-back study of US emergency department cases

Research to improve extension ladder angular positioning

Biomechanical Aspects of Fixed Ladder Climbing: Style, Ladder Tilt and Carrying

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About