Learn about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s fall protection standards and the steps you must take to protect your workers.
Falls are a leading cause of work-related injuries and deaths.
Working from an elevated surface greater than 4 feet high requires fall protection. Fall protection includes guardrails and handrails, as well as personal fall arrest systems with harnesses and lanyards.
What you need to know about fall protection
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a three-phase fall protection campaign that involves planning, providing and training.
Plan
Planning the task before beginning work helps identify hazards and risks before a worker is exposed to the hazard. Your site’s risk assessment should address tasks that require employees to work from heights. Your task procedures should include steps and protective measures to safely mitigate the hazard.
Reviewing these procedures with your team before they begin work reminds them of the hazard and the proper steps to take to perform their task safely. In the planning meeting:
- Review what equipment and tools will be needed to perform the task.
- Communicate how long it should take.
- Ensure your team has the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to perform the task safely.
You must also isolate the fall zone with a barricade or red tape to allow only authorized personnel performing the work to be in the active work area. Keep other employees and pedestrians away by designating alternative pedestrian or forklift routes.
Provide
You are responsible for providing the PPE, tools and equipment employees will need to perform the task safely. This includes mobile stairs, portable ladders, scaffolding and aerial lifts, along with rails, anchor points for fall protection tie-offs, harnesses and lanyards. You may also use netting, fencing and other means to stop or minimize falls from heights.
Just as important as providing the equipment is ensuring it is installed and used correctly. If you are using scaffolding or lifts, you must ensure employees know how to safely access the work area and all tools and equipment are readily available. If other employees will be working near or under the elevated work area, you must have toe boards and other means to prevent tools and parts from falling onto workers below. You should also provide hard hats for any employees working near or under the active work area.
Train
The final phase in OSHA’s guidance is training. All employees working from heights must:
- Be properly trained on their task
- Know the hazards they will be exposed to and the protective measures that have been identified in the risk assessment
- Understand the procedures required to perform the task safely
- Be familiar with the plan (see above)
- Know how to use the equipment needed to perform the task safely
- For example, inspecting and using extension or portable ladders, positioning ladders and lifts, and using the right components in scaffolding should all be part of employee training.
As with all other training required by OSHA, you must document fall protection training and retain records in employee or designated training files. Documentation must be readily available if an inspector, auditor or investigator requests it.
Fall protection standards
OSHA gives specific guidance on fall protection measures based on the task. Generally:
- In industrial settings, fall protection is required when working above 4 feet.
- In commercial and retail environments, and in construction, fall protection is required when working above 6 feet.
- On scaffolding, fall protection is required at 10 feet.
- On ladders, fall protection is required when working at 24 feet or more.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration uses different standards. It does not designate heights, but states fall protection is required whenever “there is danger of falling.”
Always follow best practices, regardless of whether fall protection is a regulatory requirement for the task. You have an obligation to your workers to assess and protect against all safety hazards.
Contractors
If you have contractors who will be working from heights, you are responsible for ensuring their employees have been trained. Before beginning work, discuss the hazards their work may present for your team. Then communicate those hazards and the protective measures your team will need to follow. These may include using hard hats, setting up barricades or red tape, and rerouting pedestrian or forklift traffic.
Training to-do’s
- Review your site’s risk assessment for any tasks that involve working from heights. Revise the chart and notify your safety department if there are any work areas or tasks missing.
- Review task procedures with your employees before starting work.
- Review all hazards, from worker falls to falling objects.
- Identify the steps needed to perform the task safely.
- Ensure all equipment, tools and PPE are readily available.
- Periodically observe the work area. Look for any unmitigated hazards and ensure PPE and equipment are being used properly.
- Regularly audit preshift inspection reports on mobile equipment, lifts and scaffolding to ensure they are being completed consistently and thoroughly.
- If a safety defect is noted and the equipment is tagged out of service, ensure it is properly repaired and placed back in service. Document the repair on the inspection report that indicated the defect.
- Keep documentation showing that contractors have been trained on their assigned tasks and protective measures.
- Each task should list any associated hazards your team will be exposed to and the steps you are taking to ensure their safety.
Key takeaways
- Falls from heights can cause serious and fatal injuries.
- Your site’s risk assessment must identify any work areas that require elevated work and the hazards associated with the tasks.
- Plan the work; provide the appropriate tools, equipment and PPE; and train your team on the hazards, tasks and protective measures.
- Communicate with contractors about how they intend to perform elevated work on your site and verify that contract workers have been properly trained. You are responsible for informing your team of any hazards imposed by contract workers and identifying the safety measures in place to protect them.
Reach out to Brett Findlay, SVP, Business Risk Specialist, at BFindlay@OneGroup.com for more information on how to protect your employees from falling.
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