Some of you may not know this, but there actually three different levels and degrees of fall protection. And OSHA likes them in a particular order. So we thought we’d highlight these areas of fall protection in the order OSHA wants you to go about eliminating fall hazards from your job site.
Fall Prevention
- Prevent your men from reaching the hazard by establishing a barrier between your guys and the potential fall hazard. This is most commonly represented by the use of guardrails.
Pros:
- Least risk for a fall to occur
- No training necessary
- No equipment per worker
- Anual maintenance and inspection
- No lost time.
Cons:
- Higher up front costs
Fall Restraint
- A fall restraint system uses a tie off system to prevent your workers from reaching the fall hazard. Think of a dog on a leash. Or you could think of harness and lanyard at a set length away from the hazard.
Pros:
- Better than fall arrest
- Lower up front costs.
Cons:
- Thorough training required.
- Equipment needed for each individual worker.
- Inspection and maintenance before each use.
- Equipment must properly fit each worker, adding extra cost.
- Requires setup time
- Potential risk to the user.
Fall Arrest
- Fall arrest systems stop or arrest a fall that is occurring which keeps your workers from going splat. These systems require an anchor point,a harness, and a shock absorber of some sort.
Pros:
- Lower up front costs, initially.
Cons:
- Highest risk of potential injury to the worker.
- Thorough training required.
- Equipment is required for each individual worker.
- Inspection and maintenance before each use.
- Equipment must properly fit each worker, adding extra cost.
- Requires setup time.
So there you have it. The basic differences between your options. Sometimes, there is only one option available, but if you do have a choice make sure you work your way down the list and not up the list. A guardrail is always your safest bet.
This past spring, a contractor faced a potential $70,000 fine from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for committing a violation of fall protection safety. The violation is considered “one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.” Allegedly, workers were exposed to a 50 foot fall while working without fall protection on a building’s roof. Employees are required by the United State Department of Labor Law 1926.501(b)(2)(i) to use fall protection when working from heights of 6 feet or greater.
Too many accidents occur every year in the workplace and too many times it is because of the lack of safety equipment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 253,440 reported cases if work-related non-fatal falls, compared to 814 fatal falls reported by private industries in 2007. Accidents are not inevitable, and falls are no different. With the right combination of education, equipment and training, you can eliminate falls from your workplace.
Working in a high-risk industry is dangerous enough, so whether you’re on a roof, platform, ladder, moving vehicle, or high rise, you need protection from falling. Falls from scaffolds, roofs and ladders constitute half of all disabling falls and they are often due to loss of balance because of tripping, slipping, and shifting or unstable ladders. Unfortunately, you cannot trust your body to have excellent balance at all times. With the right fall protection equipment, you can prevent disabling injuries and fatalities in high-risk workplaces.
Fall protection is more than wearing a hard hat and a safety harness. It starts with prevention and equipment. First you must identify all the potential fall hazards in your work environment: unprotected floor openings and edges, shafts, skylights, stairwells, and roof openings. Inspect fall protection equipment for defects. Use general equipment and installations like covers, handrails, guardrails and parapet walls to help prevent falls from happening. Select and wear personal fall protection equipment appropriate for the job at hand. Educate employees on current hazardous areas, signs of potential hazards, and have them continuously monitor for ongoing fall protection. This is as easy as a weekly safety meeting, discussing procedures in using fall protection equipment and responding to emergencies.
If your company is in need of new fall protection equipment, now is a great time to upgrade for the summer months. Established in 1992, Empire Safety and Supply has been providing clients with quality fall protection equipment for high-risk work environment needs. Their product lines range from harnesses and connecting devices, to fall protection systems and rescue/escape. Empire Safety and Supply represent over 800 manufacturers to offer clients the fall protection solutions and information they require. Empire Safety and Supply has a Warehouse and Inventory Support Team with the capability to ship thousands of products across the country and globe.
OSHA has for sometime been trying to clear up the confusion it created about fall protection standards for residential construction, but the proposed fix may still leave many issues unresolved.
Last month, OSHA chief David Michaels said in a speech in Washington State that OSHA plans to rescind the blanket exemption in the fall protection standard for residential construction. His remarks, reported by Inside OSHA (registration required to view story) came about two years after an agency construction advisory committee proposed the change, which also has been sought by the National Association of Home Builders and the association of state OSH plans.
Under the changed policy – which is a return to the original standard — employers who want to use alternative fall protection measures would have to show that conventional fall protection techniques such as guard rails, personal fall protection systems and/or nets are infeasible or could create a greater hazard.
The current policy (which is still in effect) allows alternative plans by residential fall protection contractors to be used to protect workers at heights of six feet and above. The plans need not be in writing or be job site-specific. The OSHA directive has been criticized as endangering workers (I vehemently disagree) and OSHA has allegedly been trying to withdraw its directive for years. It is crystal clear that the agency has had difficulty determining what to do.
How will OSHA decide?
If the current directive is withdrawn and residential contractors are again required to make the determination on feasibility or greater hazard, it is not clear how OSHA will determine whether it agrees. As a matter of fact, there is no procedure for OSHA to agree or disagree other than an inspection.
The Occupational Safety and Health State Plan Association has advocated rescinding the interim fall protection guidelines. In 2008 it told then-OSHA chief Edwin Foulke that its membership felt the guidelines were unnecessary because residential construction activities performed at heights of six feet or more above floor or ground level can be performed in a safe manner using common building practices and conventional fall protection techniques. “OSHA’s [directive] has led to confusion in the regulated construction industry and potentially places employees and employers nationwide at unnecessary risk,” the group wrote to Foulke.
Again I disagree with the OSH state plan association. I have been on numerous residential construction sites where it has indeed been a much greater hazard to install conventional fall protection as opposed to implementing a fall protection plan which includes a controlled access zone and safety monitors. In addition on many sites it actually has been infeasible in many areas to construct guard rails, install nets or provide personal fall protection systems.
The National Association of Home Builders, while supporting the rollback of the current policy, has expressed concern that the standard does not define the term “residential construction” and wants to find a way to make fall protection plans consistent across job sites when builders are constructing similar houses.
To keep up with the latest news about increased OSHA enforcement, subscribe to this blog and have it sent automatically to your Reader or email box.
