September 5, 1986

Mr. J. Thomas Wolner
R & D Engineer
D B Industries, Inc.
Post Office Box 46
Red Wing, Minnesota 55066

Dear Mr. Wolner:

This is in response to your letter of August 20, 1986, concerning in Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) testing requirements for the power units or manually operated winches of single-point adjustable suspension scaffolds.

29 CFR 1910.28(i)(1) and 29 CFR 1926.451(k)(1) both require the scaffolding, includes power units or manually operated winches, shall be of a type tested and listed by Underwriters' Laboratories or Factory Mutual Engineering Corporation.

It appears based on the information you provide this Agency that manual winches tested per U.L. Standards by Twin City Testing would be a de minimis violation of the above mentioned standard. De minimis violations are violations of standards which have no direct immediate relationship to safety or health. Whenever de minimis conditions are found during an inspection, they are documented in the same way any other violation but are not included on the citation. Abatement is not required of de minimis violations.

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Sincerely,



John B. Miles, Jr., Director
Directorate of Field Operations