Letters to the Editor

Dear Editors With regards to your article entitled “Tie–off or not?” in the May/June edition of ALH, I wish to clarify the date of the ANSI standard referred to in your article.

You have correctly identified the standard applicable to scissor lifts as being ANSI A92.6, however, the standard has been revised and recently re–issued at the end of last year. The new standard, ANSI A92.6–2006, became effective May 20, 2007, unfortunately during the period of your article. So, while your reference to ANSI A92.6–1999 is correct, at least for the first part of May, I wanted to ensure that your readers were aware that this transition period has passed, and as I write this, the 2006 revision is now in effect. Fortunately, there are no changes within the revised standard with regard to the content of your article.

Further to the point of having a new revision of the standard, there is also a new revision to the Manual of Responsibilities. Paragraph 5.2.2 of the new standard states: “The current Manual of Responsibilities for Dealers, Owners, Users, Operators, Lessors, Lessees, and Brokers of Self–Propelled Elevating Work Platforms shall be provided and stored in the weather resistant storage compartment.”

This requires that every scissor lift working in the United States now must have a copy of the 2006 version of the Manual of Responsibilities. Beyond this, the A92.3 and A92.5 standards were also revised in 2006, and therefore all of these units (pusharounds, boom lifts) must also have new Manuals of Responsibilities placed within their storage compartments. These documents are available for purchase from the Scaffold Industry Association.

I hope this clarifies the effective date of the newly revised standard and I would ask that you encourage everyone in the industry to acquire a copy of these standards or at least the Manual of Responsibilities to ensure that they are aware of what their responsibilities are, as defined by these new versions.