What’s the best advice for moving gas cylinders?
Moving gas cylinders in your workplace – the hazards
We see gas cylinders in use across the wide range of clients we visit. Some will use cylinders to power their MHE (Materials Handling Equipment) and some will be using gases to complete welding and cutting operations as part of their production process.
We’ve written blogs in the past about cylinders and safety measures but not about their actual handling (see here for an accident linked to this post).
Moving gas cylinders To lift or not to lift; that is the question
The key issue with cylinders and their movement relates to handling and lifting. Many workplaces are equipped with various handling equipment and it’s tempting to use one of a number of means to lift cylinders. It’s also quite tempting to manually handle cylinders into position when the distances aren’t too great.
The risks of moving gas cylinders
We’ve seen in real life a number of situations where a high risk method has been used to move cylinders, check through the examples below and see if you recognise any of these from your past experience of perhaps even your own site;
- Manual handling by churning (rolling on the base);
- This is a valid method but what about tall and heavy cylinders and moving them through a cluttered and busy workplace? One drop can cause significant damage to the cylinder, or even the valve, creating a ballistic missile capable of passing through walls! The is suitable for short movements of easily handled cylinders only (<5m).
- Lifting using fork lift truck attachments;
- This is fine if the cylinders are safely stored on a pallet or cradle but using attachments such as barrel clamps, scissor clamps or magnets – this can damage the cylinder walls with catastrophic consequences.
- Lifting using the valve shroud or valve itself;
- Lifting on the valve shroud can cause it to detach from the cylinder, it’s just not designed for a suspension lift.
- Lifting on the valve it certainly a very bad idea – again, it’s not designed for this and could lead to leaks, sudden failure and may of course slip from the lifting sling – this is the highest risk and must always be avoided.
What should you do?
In simple terms follow the guidance issued by the BCGA, which you can download here; BCGA TIS 28
If you still have questions perhaps now is a good time to ask an experienced consultant from Outsource Safety to review your current procedures. We can visit and carry out specific risk assessments or even a comprehensive Gap Analysis in line with the requirements of the internationally recognised Management Standard OHSAS18001, contact us for more information.
