This month’s focus
- Fall Protection
- Use appropriate systems and methods to prevent falls and to protect workers if they do fall.
- Inspect and maintain fall-protection equipment before and after using it.
- Become familiar with OSHA’s fall protection rules.
Here are some guidelines that may be helpful to you when assessing your fall protection requirements:
- General industry: Operations and maintenance; trigger height = 4 ft above walking/working surface.
- Construction: Construction, alterations, modifications, demolition, roofing, painting; trigger height = 6 ft above walking/ working surface.
- Horizontal distance: Without fall protection—from unprotected edge = 50 ft minimum.
- Free-fall distance: Never exceeds 6 ft.
- Safety monitor: (Low slope) Roofing work only, roof > 50 ft requires warning line at 6 ft, monitor to edge.
- Work positioning: Maximum free-fall = 2 ft, anchorage = 3,000 lb, connectors = 5,000 lb.
- Controlled access zones: Overhand bricklaying and related leading-edge construction work only.
- Guardrails, parapets: 39-45 in. high; withstand 200 lb at top rail; guardrails must have mid-rail and toeboards if tools, material can fall to lower level.
o Materials: Constructed of minimum 500-lb strength material (no barrier tape). Pipe 1½ in. minimum; Wood 2 x 4 in. minimum; two cables minimum ¼-in. diameter, top cable flagged at 6-ft intervals, no deflection under pressure below 39 in.
- Skylights: 200-lb force cover; guardrail; or fall restraint/fall arrest; warning line systems.
- Warning line systems: Low slope roofs only.
o General industry—“Designated Area”—minimum 6 ft from unprotected edge.
o Construction—“Nonconforming Guardrail”—minimum 15 ft from unprotected edge.
o System requirements—uprights withstand 16-lb force at 30-in. height; line to be rope, wire, chain of 500-lb tensile strength, flagged at 6-ft intervals; height 34-39 in.; line attached to uprights—no line slip.
- Fall restraint: Worker’s center of gravity cannot fall over the unprotected edge in any direction. Lanyard/rope = 3,000 lb; body belt or full body harness; anchor = 2 x force exerted, or 3,000 lb.
- Personal fall arrest:
o Basic system = full-body harness, 6 ft shock-absorbing lanyard, 5,000 lb anchorage (per person); minimum clearance = 17.5 ft from anchor (6-ft lanyard, 3.5 ft shock absorber, 5 ft surface to dorsal D-ring, 1 ft harness stretch, 2 ft safety factor). Engineered anchor may be 3,600 lb.
o Self-retracting lifeline—5,000-lb anchorage (certain conditions 3,000 lb), minimum clearance; non-shock-absorbing lanyard = 5 ft; shock absorbing (read label) = 7.5 ft; account for pendulum effect.
- Horizontal lifeline: (Designed by qualified person) minimum clearance = 17.5 ft + lifeline stretch.
- Vertical lifeline: 5,000-lb anchor (only one worker per lifeline) for clearance add 1 ft for rope grab to activate, minimum clearance = 7.5 ft + lanyard length.
- Ladder climbing devices: Maximum 9-in. connector between the ladder safety device and a front (chest) D-ring, engineered support. Must limit fall distance to 2 ft or less.
- Rescue planning: Prompt rescue—danger of suspension trauma.
Taken from: http://www.elcosh.org/en/document/910/d000864/fall-protection%253A-misconceptions-%2526-myths%253B-working-within-the-osha-system.html
Fall Protection Plan
Employers engaged in leading edge work, precast concrete construction work and residential construction work who can demonstrate that it is infeasible or creates a greater hazard to use conventional fall protection systems must develop and follow a fall protection plan. Below are sample fall protection plans developed for precast concrete construction and residential work that could be tailored to be site specific for other precast concrete or residential jobsites. This sample plan can be modified to be used for other work involving leading edge work. This sample plan can be located at: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_id=10927&p_table=STANDARDS
Training
OSHA requires that any employee that is at risk for falls in the workplace must be trained and properly equipped. The training must be certified in writing for each employee. Also, employees must be retrained if work procedures or processes change or if poor work practices are identified.
FOR MORE INFO:
http://osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/subpartm.htmlProtection
Falls are one of the major sources of injury to the American workforce. Every year there are approximately 300,000 injuries from falls in industrial facilities and construction in the United States. 1,300 workers die from falls each year.
Fall Protection is a system that is designed to protect personnel from the risk of falls when working at elevated heights. Fall protection can be a confusing topic. The general industry standard states that fall protection becomes an issue when the walking/working surface is above 4 ft, while the construction standard uses 6 ft of height as the unprotected limit. The first step in minimizing the risk of fall hazards is to perform a risk assessment for the tasks involving working above these heights. The risk assessment should consider both the nature and duration of the task and the physical surroundings and conditions in which the task is performed.
Fall Protection Assessment
You accomplish fall protection by doing the following:
- Ensure that everyone has a role to play in preventing falls.
- Identify and evaluate fall hazards.
- Eliminate fall hazards, if possible.
Train workers to recognize fall hazards
Train and maintain training records effortlessly on hundreds of safety and employment log topics
Watch this short video!
Safety U Online Training
Fall Protection Training
Content Sample
(1 min. 18 sec.)