Ms Anna Bliss This is Me

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1. 1. www.northern-housing.co.uk

   www.northern-housing.co.uk/fea - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/19/2007   Last Visited: 12/5/2007

   Anna Bliss is the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)'s principal inspector for construction in Greater Manchester. She started her career with the executive 15 years ago as a general inspector in Birmingham. Her role as principal inspector, which she has held for just over two years, sees her heading a team of six inspectors across Greater Manchester. "It's a really good area to be inspecting in," says Bliss, "especially with so much construction work going on. We get a whole range of buildings in this area, from very tall buildings to refurbishing old Victorian houses so we're kept very busy."
   
   Bliss says the HSE has a proactive plan of what work they want to do in terms of going out and inspecting the sites, which is prioritised on the basis of the accidents that have happened within the industry. "Next year one of the areas we will be concentrating on is refurbishment, and commercial refurbishment," she says. "Whether it's a derelict mill or an old Victorian house being turned into flats and apartments. We need to start planning what we are going to look at because there have been problems across Greater Manchester and throughout the UK with buildings collapsing."
   
   Bliss says construction accidents are a particular problem with developers converting Victorian mansions into flats. "If interior walls aren't removed correctly for example, then you can end up with a full building collapsing, which can potentially kill whoever is in the building," she says. "It's been fortunate that we haven't had any accidents with multiple people being killed in those circumstances."
   
   Throughout the UK, buildings are being constructed at greater and greater heights, which can be a problem for health and safety. But Bliss says that the absolute height of the building very often doesn't make a difference once you're over one or two storeys. "If you fall off the outside of a building, you fall off the outside of a building," she says. "Whatever the height of the building you want to stop that."
   
   Bliss says that that there are particular issues with tall buildings in the method of constructing concrete frame buildings and the way flying tables are used to build the floors. "What you'll find in the future is that buildings will be constructed in a different way," she says. "The industry has recognised that they have a problem and they want to do it differently. The HSE has worked with contractors on this so in the future you'll see buildings with an ,extra skin' around the top of them, which acts to stop objects and people from falling out of the building."
   
   The HSE also worked with the industry on the way it uses harnesses for those working at the edge of a building. "We were finding that people were using the equipment that was available, but they were attaching it so it wouldn't necessarily work," says Bliss. In order for a lanyard to work the rope usually needs to go above a persons head and not at more than 30 degrees away from the vertical. "In some of these buildings, particularly residential buildings, the floor-to-ceiling height can be just over 2m so to attach a rope above somebody's head can be awkward," she says. "People were attaching them to a running line some way behind them so they were walking out horizontally. They feel safe because they are on a lanyard but if they stepped off the edge of the building it could just carry on extending."
   
   Bliss says the contractors are now taking completely different approaches to techniques such as installing cladding, after working with the HSE. "Quite a few companies now that install cladding will use the robotic machines, which effectively are mini cranes," she says. The cranes work inside the building and will pick up the cladding from where its being stored, position it the right way round and take it outside the building, Bliss explains.
   ...
   "We run an event every year at Haydock Park and our website also has lots of free information," says Bliss.

2. 2. www.northern-housing.co.uk

   www.northern-housing.co.uk/fea - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/19/2007   Last Visited: 12/5/2007

   Anna Bliss is the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)'s principal inspector for construction in Greater Manchester. She started her career with the executive 15 years ago as a general inspector in Birmingham. Her role as principal inspector, which she has held for just over two years, sees her heading a team of six inspectors across Greater Manchester. "It's a really good area to be inspecting in," says Bliss, "especially with so much construction work going on. We get a whole range of buildings in this area, from very tall buildings to refurbishing old Victorian houses so we're kept very busy."
   
   Bliss says the HSE has a proactive plan of what work they want to do in terms of going out and inspecting the sites, which is prioritised on the basis of the accidents that have happened within the industry. "Next year one of the areas we will be concentrating on is refurbishment, and commercial refurbishment," she says. "Whether it's a derelict mill or an old Victorian house being turned into flats and apartments. We need to start planning what we are going to look at because there have been problems across Greater Manchester and throughout the UK with buildings collapsing."
   
   Bliss says construction accidents are a particular problem with developers converting Victorian mansions into flats. "If interior walls aren't removed correctly for example, then you can end up with a full building collapsing, which can potentially kill whoever is in the building," she says. "It's been fortunate that we haven't had any accidents with multiple people being killed in those circumstances."
   
   Throughout the UK, buildings are being constructed at greater and greater heights, which can be a problem for health and safety. But Bliss says that the absolute height of the building very often doesn't make a difference once you're over one or two storeys. "If you fall off the outside of a building, you fall off the outside of a building," she says. "Whatever the height of the building you want to stop that."
   
   Bliss says that that there are particular issues with tall buildings in the method of constructing concrete frame buildings and the way flying tables are used to build the floors. "What you'll find in the future is that buildings will be constructed in a different way," she says. "The industry has recognised that they have a problem and they want to do it differently. The HSE has worked with contractors on this so in the future you'll see buildings with an ,extra skin' around the top of them, which acts to stop objects and people from falling out of the building."
   
   The HSE also worked with the industry on the way it uses harnesses for those working at the edge of a building. "We were finding that people were using the equipment that was available, but they were attaching it so it wouldn't necessarily work," says Bliss. In order for a lanyard to work the rope usually needs to go above a persons head and not at more than 30 degrees away from the vertical. "In some of these buildings, particularly residential buildings, the floor-to-ceiling height can be just over 2m so to attach a rope above somebody's head can be awkward," she says. "People were attaching them to a running line some way behind them so they were walking out horizontally. They feel safe because they are on a lanyard but if they stepped off the edge of the building it could just carry on extending."
   
   Bliss says the contractors are now taking completely different approaches to techniques such as installing cladding, after working with the HSE. "Quite a few companies now that install cladding will use the robotic machines, which effectively are mini cranes," she says. The cranes work inside the building and will pick up the cladding from where its being stored, position it the right way round and take it outside the building, Bliss explains.
   ...
   "We run an event every year at Haydock Park and our website also has lots of free information," says Bliss.

3. 3. GNN - Government News Network

   www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail. - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/1/2005   Last Visited: 9/12/2005

   In order for the impressive new buildings to be matched by an impressive safety record construction companies - particularly the many small sub contracting companies - need straightforward advice on meeting their health and safety duties and responsibilities," says HSE Principal Construction Inspector Anna Bliss.