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Have you ever stood on a roof of a commercial building or near the perimeter of a building under construction, looked at the railings, and wondered, “I know the railings are keeping me safe, but how did they get there?” I mean, at some point, some worker had to be risking his or...
Regardless of how much effort OSHA, the EHS industry and employers put into fall prevention, falls continue to occur. In a perfect world, all efforts to prevent falls would be 100% successful, but it’s not a perfect world. Failure to take measures to reduce the impact of an...
Years ago, there was little choice of which type of fall protection you could use because there just wasn’t much variety available. More recently, though, manufacturers have made great strides in occupational safety technology. In fact, for almost every situation there is a...
To say insurance is not cheap would be an understatement. We live in a litigious society that requires you to ensure your company is protected no matter the cost. A good broker will help you find the best deal on insurance policies, but even then you could be eligible for further...
Anchor points and horizontal lifelines are two ways to achieve the same purpose: protecting your employees from a fall. Each method has its pros and cons, as well as appropriate and inappropriate times for use. Perhaps, though, the most important question to ask is:...
The very fact that you are concerned with which type of fall protection to use while operating a lift already puts you ahead of the game. How often have you seen workers in boom lifts with absolutely no fall protection? I’m willing to bet it’s pretty often. Fall Protection IS Required When...
Fall protection regulations consist of some complicated and confusing standards. When exceptions to some of these standards come into play, there’s bound to be some people who get completely lost. To fully understand the fall protection regulation related to scaffolding, you must first...
Because of OSHA’s various fall protection anchor point requirements over the years, it’s easy to think that every fall protection anchor point needs to be able to withstand a force of 5,000 lb. But that may not be true.
In this article, I will show you how you can choose a fall arrest...
This is an attitude most workers seem to have. And why not? No one goes to work, thinking, "I am going to get hurt today." Although it seems somewhat pessimistic, workers should be thinking "I could get hurt today, so I will take every precaution to prevent it."
My husband,...
Sometimes it's obvious: you're about to work on a scaffold, at the edge of a roof, or on a piece of equipment fifteen feet high and you know instinctively that guard rails are needed.
Other times, it's not so simple. Not because safety railing wouldn't be an intuitive solution, but...
When considering fall protection solutions, people often consider Personal Fall Arrest Systems and railings as the only two options available. In some cases, that might be true, but in other cases, it puts an undue burden on the person trying to come up with the solution by...
Safety has many enemies - budget, schedule, leadership indifference, to name a few – so maybe saying complacency is its worst enemy is a bit of hyperbole. Then again, maybe it’s not.
Each of the examples I mentioned is lacking one key ingredient that sets complacency...
Figuring out how to work on a roof without fall protection is easier than you think. Simply consider the task you are performing (whether that be maintenance, construction, or really anything else) assess the hazards, divide by the number of workers and factor in the use of personal...
Many people in the safety industry never had the luxury of getting an education in safety management or being groomed over time for a management position. For inexplicable reasons, companies continue to feel like safety management is just something they can assign to somebody...
Swing falls are not as fun as they might sound at first. In fact, in all seriousness, swing falls can be extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, many people, when working at heights, fail to take swing into consideration. So, just what is swing?
Swing is what occurs when...
It's that time of year again, when many parts of the country devolve into a frozen, bone-chilling wasteland that sends many of us scrambling to our warm fireplaces, layers of fleece, and mugs of hot (sometimes spiked) beverages. Even parts of the country not usually known for their cold...
Complex fall protection situations arise all the time. Workers find themselves in scenarios where they need to have fall protection and a personal fall arrest system (PFAS) seems to be the only solution available, yet there is no suitable anchor point. This always comes up at the last minute;...
The recent accident in Westwood, MA regarding the fall of a worker clearing snow from the roof of a business, underscores just how dangerous this job can be. In this particular instance, the worker fell through a skylight and landed on the ground 25’ below. In light of the situation,...
If you’ve been a safety professional for any amount of time, you could probably write a book based on the excuses you’ve heard regarding why a worker or a company failed to adhere to safety rules and regulations. The excuses range from ignorant to absurd – from entertaining to...
Ladders tend to be one of those tools that get taken for granted because they are used so often in the home. Therefore, sometimes ladder safety gets as much consideration at work as it does at home, which is to say: zero. That needs to change. In a recent CDC article, it was noted...
Some of the safest people on the job do some of the most foolish things at home. It seems that safety takes on a whole new meaning when you’re at home because, well, nobody is making you pay attention to it. OSHA has no jurisdiction over what you do in – or on – your own...
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