Posted By Aidan Toner In helping to save the environment some of our staff are finding it difficult to save themselves from manual handling injury.These booms are approx 3m in length(CodeT270)and become saturated with contaminant/or simply by water when being deployed.These things are like overgrown sausages and have a changing centre of gravity when being handled?Any assistance greatly received.PS Supply company not over helpfull with advice!!

Posted By Heather Aston Kieran Access to treament isn't exactly a safeguard.... I think Aidan was after prevention not cure. Not sure how you'd dry out a spillage boom before handling it either since the handling involves getting it in and out of water.... Aidan - I'd look for a different supplier if your current one can't give you some sensible advice if I were you. I've no direct experience of assessing this task, but I would imagine it's not an easy one. How's your relationship with your local Envrionment Agency office - I bet they do this A LOT and might be able to advise? Heather

Posted By Mike Charleston Aidan In the offshore world, much larger sizes of (non-absorbent) boom and far longer lengths are handled on and off large reels by hydraulic, electric or ICE motors that rotate the reel. One operator controls the speed of rotation and others generally lend a hand to feed them on & off. Much more user-friendly! I wonder if you could use the idea from the previous post (rope attached to boom) and combine that with a small winch, such as those used on 4-wheel drive vehicles or on the back of small fishing boats. Mike

Posted By Renny Thomson As an alternative to absorbent booms, could you not use non-permeable booms to contain the spill/contamination, then use skimmers or other devices to remove the contaminant. The booms would then be removed. In oil-spill exercises that I have been involved with, this method seems to be favoured by the oil industry for protecting shorelines and harbours. The manual handling issues are addressed by the use of small water-borne craft to deploy the booms, with personnel guiding the booms out, and the use of vehicle mounted winches or lifting equipment to recover them. The residual manual handling risk was quite low. It may be woth contacting the MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency) to ask if they have any risk assessments for the deployment of oil-spill equipment.