According to the Health and Safety Executive, almost 20% of deaths in the construction industry are caused by falls from or through roofs. The majority of these falls are through fragile materials such as asbestos cement roofing or old/fragile rooflights. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 places a duty on designers and specifiers to give proper consideration to eliminating or reducing risks at the design stage. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Health and Safety in Roof Work draws attention to the responsibilities of those specifying rooflights.(HSE) Health and Safety in Roof Work states that where rooflights are required, designers should consider:

• Specifying rooflights that are Non-Fragile.
• Fitting rooflights designed to project above the plane of the roof and which cannot be walked on (these reduce the risk but they should be capable of withstanding a person falling onto them).
• Protecting rooflight, e.g. bymeans of mesh or grids fitted below or above the rooflight
• Specifying rooflights with a design life that matches that of the roof, taking account of the likely deterioration due to ultraviolet exposure, environmental pollution and internal and external building environment.

For specifiers the key message is to eliminate ‘fragile’ materials from roof design. For contractors, provide effective fall arrest equipment or safety netting.

Non-fragile rooflights

Whitesales continuous rooflights are out-of-plane rooflights, and provided they are specified with polycarbonate glazing, can be deemed to be ‘non-fragile’.

• Polycarbonate continuous rooflights have been designed according to EN 1873 2005 [E] to an energy of 1200J and to ACR[M] 001: 2005 and can be classified as Class B ‘Non-Fragile’.
• Whitesales offers a 10 year warranty against discolouration of polycarbonate glazing material and loss of impact strength, underwritten by the sheet material supplier.
• Whitesales offers a post-forming warranty backed by the sheet manufacturer.

Man-safe

Man-safe is a termoften used within the construction industry to mean that the product can withstand foot traffic. However man-safe has no recognised definition and ‘Non-Fragile’ does not qualify a product to be used as a thoroughfare.

Whilst glazing and other accessories may be designed to safely resist the impact of a human body falling against it, the wilful act of walking on any kind of roof glazing must be forbidden at all times.

The act of walking upon a glazed structure can cause microscopic damage that, in time, may have a detrimental effect upon the impact performance of the system.

Walking upon glazing may encourage a practice that could lead to general disregard for the rating of said glazing, with catastrophic consequences.