News Archive

The IRATA Chairman and General Manager have been invited to present at the inaugural International Occupational Health and Safety Congress (IOHSC) in Istanbul, Turkey. They will provide talks and presentations on the regulatory work that IRATA do in order to provide a safe system of work for their technicians and member companies.

The Science of Occupational Health and Safety serves to ensure the occupational health and safety of employees in a personal sense and to improve the occupational health and safety culture in the whole society in a general sense. With this purpose, this international congress to be held by İBB will address in detail the general issues of occupational health and safety in a national and international scale. Additionally, occupational health and safety regulations and practices of local governments will be discussed separately. All subjects will be discussed by occupational safety experts, workplace physicians, academicians, representatives of the public and private sector and other experts and researchers in the field.

For a full list of the speakers at the event, or to register your interest in the event please click here.

​IRATA International’s ITEC 2017 was held in Cape Town, South Africa between 23 - 25 October 2017…

Further IRATA Safety Bulletins have been released aimed at raising awareness of hazards within the rope access industry.

Safety Bulletin No. 44: Rope access main rope failure

This safety bulletin summarises the findings of a main rope failure. The rope access technician was undertaking non-destructive testing and fell when a hot plug on top of the pipework melted through both the rope protector and the main rope to the point of failure. The technician fell until arrested by their back-up safety system.

For the full bulletin click here.

Safety Bulletin No. 45: Fall from height - aid climbing

This safety bulletin summarises the findings from two non-fatal falls from height which occurred during the de-rigging of safety nets whilst using aid climbing techniques. The accidents took place on two different sites, with different specialist netting contractors. Primary causes included the potential for an equal and opposite horizontal reaction not being recognised and work that was taking place in an area away from that planned as the original area was not available.

For the full bulletin click here.

Safety Bulletin No. 46: Fall from height – major injury

This safety bulletin summarises the findings of a fall from height accident which occurred during work to clean the external windows of an office building, the fall resulted in significant injuries. Following an investigation by the employer and local enforcing authority, several underlying causes were identified as contributing factors of the incident. Issues included equipment selection and training.

For the full bulletin click here.

Safety Bulletin No. 47: Working in a bunker – dangerous occurrence

This safety bulletin summarises the findings of a dangerous occurrence that took place whilst two IRATA Level 2 rope access technicians were cleaning the internal walls of a limestone bunker. Following the incident, the method of work was changed to prevent a recurrence.

For the full bulletin click here.

All new and existing safety bulletins are freely available here.

Following the release of the ICOP Annex P edge management poster in November 2016, we are pleased to announce that a further two posters have been translated into other languages by our member companies.

Please be aware that amendments to Annex O: ‘Protecting rope access technicians against environmental conditions’ have now been incorporated within the ICOP which can be downloaded from our website ​

A Level 1 Technician admitted allowing a Level 3 Technician to enter fraudulent hours into his logbook, thereby breaching the following provisions of TACS.

Level 3 Technician admitted knowingly entering fraudulent hours into a Level 1 Technician’s logbook, thereby breaching the following provisions of TACS

Our Annual Awards took place at a unique African restaurant in the heart of Cape Town. We were honored to have Mrs. Deborah Burnett as an invited guest to receive the Awards on behalf of her late husband, Graham Burnett​