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You think that a boom lift has little in common with a frame scaffold and you wonder why the US federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration, OSHA, combined the aerial lift standards with the scaffold standards in the same subpart. You think it should be obvious that a stationary scaffold...

Aerial Work Platforms (AWP) are wonderful machines. They provide quick elevated access for workers to perform their tasks. They are mobile and safe to use. But how do they work? Why don’t they fall over? Well, they do fall over but it isn’t the machine’s fault—it’s the guy who forgot his training...

Identification of the correct safety factors for scaffold foundations. Foundations are a necessary part of any scaffold, whether it is a supported scaffold, a suspended scaffold, or an aerial lift. Webster’s dictionary describes a foundation as “the natural or prepared ground or base on which some...

An appraisal of the codes and standards that apply to aerial lifts, including boom lifts and scissors lifts. Sometimes it’s simple, sometimes it isn’t. When it comes to aerial platforms, such as boom lifts, scissors lifts, mast climbers and the like, the applicable OSHA standards get twisted,...

In the year 2000, at the turn of the century, the U.S. Federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration, OSHA, issued a Letter of Interpretation wherein it opined that aerial lifts known as scissors lifts (see illustration) are not aerial lifts but instead are mobile scaffolds. The opinion was...