Low Level Developments

The introduction of the WAHR and the need for guardrails below 2m posed a problem for tower suppliers as the European standard EN1004 only covered towers of 2.2m and above (the 2.2m figure having been inserted into the original standard by European manufacturers of towers and folding ladders who felt that they had step ladder products that adequately covered this height; the 2.2m being derived from the use of a 2m frame plus leg and castor). The result was a proliferation of small tower structures that were designed for use mainly indoors and usually for one person. They ranged from folding podiums or pulpits up to folding room scaffolds. All now needing to provide guardrails and potentially toe boards. There was also a major problem of misuse by operative who overloaded the products and often used them in situations such as outdoors on uneven ground that they were never designed for.

Once again PASMA came to the fore and to clear the confusion over these products worked with BSI and manufacturing members to introduce a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for these items. PAS 250