Understanding Fall Prevention At Work

Original illustration unavailable: 1According to OSHO, in the year 2013, accidental falls accounted for up to 574 fatalities. If employees at your facility need to work at elevated positions for most part of their day, inadequate protection could come with some of the heftiest OSHO fines. To protect employees and ensure their safety, OSHO suggests implementing dependable fall prevention and protection systems. If employees are required to work six feet or above in the construction industry or four feet or more above in general industry, fall protection is imperative. But what really is fall protection and how do you implement it? Here are three aspects you should be aware of:  

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Fall Prevention

Prevention is done by installing guardrails or cutting down the chances of a fall entirely through other safety measures. Fall preventions may be safety installations or temporary fixes like work platforms. According to OSHO, the ideal method of fall prevention is maintenance stands and work platforms that eliminate all risks of falls. This is because of a number of reasons. With specialized work platforms, workers don’t need to worry about any dangling wires or cables. Work platforms also provide a small perimeter allowing workers to move close to the elevated worksite. Features like guardrails, safety chains, ladders, staircase and adjustable heights make maintenance platforms useful for fall prevention.  

Fall Restraints

In case guardrails are not practical, falls maybe prevented through installation of restraint systems. It works by fastening a worker to an anchor system, preventing them from reaching the edge of an elevated work site. Due to the limitations, fall prevention systems provide a limited range of motion and require extensive training. At the same time, overhead obstacles like rotor blades limit the mobility of the workers. Even though implementing fall restraints aren’t costly, it requires substantial training before use.  

Fall Arrest

Fall arrest systems stop a fall through a tie-off system. Unfortunately, fall arrests have the highest number of safety risks associated, like colliding with objects when falling, improper use of equipment, and the risk of suspension trauma if the person isn’t rescued. These systems also need specially trained rescue experts which mean additional costs. However, in some circumstances, this might be the only way to prevent falls. The best practice is to implement fall prevention systems wherever possible. Get in touch with us to find out which industrial maintenance platforms suit your needs. We also offer custom fabrication for aircraft maintenance platforms.