Fall Protection

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Fall Protection

• Safety Risk Management Services
• UW-Stout

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Introduction

• Falls are the second leading cause of
  occupational fatalities and disabling injuries in
  the United States.
• Each year, over 500 workers die in fall- related
  accidents.
• Over 300,000 workers suffer a disabling injury.
• Most of these accidents occur from falls from
  elevations of _____ feet or less.

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Fall Protection Requirements

• 1926.501 Duty to have fall Protection
• 1926.502 Fall Protection systems criteria and
  practices

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1926.501 - Duty to have Fall Protection

• All fall protection required by this section
  shall conform to the criteria set forth in
  1926.502
• The employer shall determine if the
  walking/working surfaces on which its employees
  are to work have the strength and structural
  integrity to support employees safely.

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Duty to have Fall Protection

• Unprotected sides and edges. Each employee on a
  walking/working surface (horizontal vertical
  surface) with an unprotected side or edge which
  is 6 or more above a lower level shall be
  protected from falling by the use of guardrail
  systems, safety net systems, or personal fall
  arrest systems (PFAS).

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Background

• The standard identifies 15 areas or activities
  where some type of fall protection is needed if
  the potential fall distance is six feet or greater

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Areas/activities covered

• Leading edges (different levels)
• Hoist areas
• Holes (including skylights)
• Ramp, runways other walkways
• Excavations
• Overhead bricklaying related work
• Wall openings

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Areas/activities covered

• Roofing
• Walking/Working surfaces not otherwise addressed

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Exception

• The provisions of this sections do not apply when
  employees are making an inspection,
  investigation, or assessment of workplace
  conditions prior to the actual start of work or
  after all work has been completed.

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Leading Edge

• Definition--The edge of a floor, roof, or
  formwork for a floor or other walking/working
  surface (such as the deck) which changes location
  as additional floor, deck, etc. is added. A
  leading edge is considered to be an unprotected
  side edge during periods when it is not
  actively under construction.

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Leading Edge

• Each employee who is constructing a leading edge
  6 or more above lower levels shall be protected
  from falling unless the employer can demonstrate
  it creates a greater hazard to use a fall
  protection system.

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Leading Edge

• Each employee on walking/working surfaces shall
  be protected from falling through holes
  (including skylights) more than 6 feet above
  lower levels, by Personal Fall Arrest Systems
  (PFAS), covers, or guardrail systems erected
  around such holes.

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Holes

• Each employee on walking/working surfaces shall
  be protected from falling through holes
  (including skylights) more than 6 feet above
  lower levels by PFAS, covers, or guardrail
  systems.
• Employees shall be protected from tripping in or
  stepping into holes and from objects falling
  through holes.

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Excavations

• Excavations. Each employee at the edge of an
  excavation 6 feet or more in depth shall be
  protected from falling by guardrail systems,
  fences, or barricades when the excavation are not
  readily seen because of plant growth or other
  visual barrier.

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Excavations

• Excavations. Each employee at the edge of a
  well, pit, shaft, and similar excavation 6 or
  more in depth shall be protected from falling by
  guardrail systems, fences, barricades, or covers.

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Low-Slope roofs

• Definitiona slope to 4 to 12
• Working 6 or more above lower level shall be
  protected from falling by
• Guardrail system
• Safety net system
• Personal fall arrest system
• Warning line and one of the above
• Warning line and safety monitoring system

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Steep Roofs

• Each employee on a steep roof with unprotected
  sides and edges 6 or more above lower levels
  shall be protected from falling by guardrail
  systems with toe boards, safety net systems, or
  PFAS.

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Steep roof - Example

• Bowman Hall

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Low-slope roof - Example

• LLC

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Low-slope roof - Example

• Applied Arts

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Low-slope roof - Example

• How would you change that light?
• Articulating lift?
• Extension ladder?
• Hang over edge?
• All of the above require special procedures.
  Know them!

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Low-slope roof - Example

• Walkway between EHS and Voc. Rehab.

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Low-slope and Steep-roof

• Bowman Hall

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Protection from Falling Objects

• When an employee is exposed to falling objects,
  the employer shall have each employee wear a
  hard hat and shall implement one of the
  following
• Erect Toe boards, screens or guardrail
• Erect a canopy
• Barricade the area

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1926.502 Fall protection systems

• General Requirement Fall Protection must be
  provided and installed before the employee begins
  the work that requires fall protection.

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Fall Protection Systems

• Guardrail systems
• Safety Net systems
• Personal fall arrest systems (PFAS)
• Positioning device systems
• Warning line systems
• Controlled access system
• Safety monitoring system

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Personal Fall Arrest System

• PFAS is a system to arrest an employee in a fall
  and consists of an anchorage, connectors, body
  belt or body harness and may include a lanyard,
  deceleration device, lifeline, or combination of
  these.
• The use of a body belt for fall arrest is
  prohibited!

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Personal Fall Arrest System

• Personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) and their use
  shall comply with the provisions covering
  Connectors Dee-rings Snaphooks Webbing
  Lifelines Lanyards Ropes Anchorages etc.
• Specific details pertaining to the above can be
  found in 29CFR 1926.502(d).

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Personal Fall Arrest System

• The attachment point of the body harness shall be
  located in the center of the wearers back near
  shoulder level, or above the wearers head.
• PFAS and components subjected to impact loading
  shall be immediately removed from service and not
  used again and until inspected by competent
  person to be undamaged suitable for reuse.

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Personal Fall Arrest System

• PFAS shall be inspected prior to each use for
  wear, damage and other deterioration, and
  defective components shall be removed from
  service.
• PFAS shall not be attached to guardrails or used
  to hoist materials

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Competent Person

• Construction personnel who will be responsible
  for supervision on job sites where fall hazards
  exist. Knows OSHA competent person requirements
  for fall protection, fall hazard identification,
  how to select the proper protective system and
  the importance of planning for fall protection.

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Safety Monitoring System

• Safety Monitoring System is
• a safety system in which a competent person is
  responsible for recognize fall hazards.
• Shall warn the employee when it appears the
  employee is unaware of a fall hazard or is acting
  in an unsafe manner.

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Safety Monitoring System

• The Monitor
• Shall be on the same walking/working surface and
  within visual sighting distance of the employee
  being monitored.
• Shall be close enough to communicate orally with
  the employee.
• Shall NOT have other responsibilities which could
  take the monitors attention from the monitoring
  function.

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Safety Monitoring System

• Mechanical equipment shall not be used or stored
  in areas where safety monitoring systems are
  being used to monitor emp.
• No employee, other than an employee engaged in
  roofing work on low-sloped roofs or an employee
  covered by a fall protection plan, shall be
  allowed in an area where an employee is being
  protected by a safety monitor system.

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Safety Monitoring System

• Each employee working in a controlled access zone
  shall be directed to comply promptly with fall
  hazard warnings from safety monitors.

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Ladder Safety and Support Systems

• Examples of some of the locations that can be
  on campus

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Ladder Safety Fall Protection

• Light Pole at Williams football stadium.
• Notice vertical wire cable

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Ladder Safety Fall Protection

• Light Pole at Williams football stadium.
• Notice vertical wire cable

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Ladder Safety Fall Protection

• Light poles east of outdoor track

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Ladder Safety Fall Protection

• Light Pole east of outdoor track
• Notice vertical wire cable

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Ladder Safety and Support Systems

• All safety devices must be capable of
  withstanding, without failure, a drop test
  consisting of a 500 pound weight.
• All safety devices must permit the worker to
  ascend or descend without continually having to
  hold, push, or pull any part of the device,
  leaving both hands free for climbing

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Ladder Safety and Support Systems

• All safety devices must be activated within 2
  feet after a fall occurs, and limit the
  descending velocity of an employee to 7
  feet/second or less.
• The connection between the carrier or lifeline
  and the point of attachment to the body belt or
  harness must not exceed 9 inches in length.

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Ladder Safety Devices

• Mountings for rigid carriers must be attached at
  each end of the carrier, with intermediate
  mountings, spaced along the entire length of the
  carrier, to provide the necessary strength to
  stop workers falls.

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Rope Grab

• Def. - Is a deceleration device which travels on
  a lifeline and automatically, by friction,
  engages the lifeline and locks so as to arrest
  the fall of an employee. A rope grab usually
  employs the principle of inertial locking,
  cam/level locking, or both.

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Self-retracting lifeline/lanyard

• Def. Is a deceleration device containing a
  drum-wound line which can be slowly extracted
  from, or retracted onto, the drum under slight
  tension during normal employee movement, and
  which, after onset of a fall, automatically locks
  the drum and arrests the fall.

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Steps to follow

1. Determine if walking/working surfaces are
   structurally safe
2. Conduct a fall protection hazard assessment
3. Eliminate the need for fall protection if
   possible
4. Select the appropriate type of fall protection
   system

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Steps to follow

• Develop rescue retrieval procedures
• May involve calling 911
• Contact your supervisor if you have any
  questions!

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Dont improvise!

• Does this look safe?

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Dont take chances!

• Does this look acceptable?
• Any questions?

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Dont take chances when climbing!

• Any Questions?