The Hierarchy of Fall Protection and Avoiding Fall Protection Misuse
The Hierarchy of Fall Protection is the accepted order of control to remove or minimize fall hazards. This technique depicts usual safety practices for hazard reduction, from elimination to administrative controls. With the data gathered from the fall hazard assessments, every solution in the hierarchy may be employed on every hazard.
1. Hazard Elimination
The popular solution to every fall hazard is elimination. The causes for exposure to the fall hazard is examined to see if altering the procedure, practice, location or equipment will remove exposure to the fall hazard. Specifying HVAC (Heating, Venting and Air Conditioning) equipment be placed in a room or on the ground instead of the edge of the roof, is an illustration of hazard elimination.
2. Passive Fall Protection
Physical barriers, such as guardrails and covers over holes, constitute passive fall protection. Passive protection is essentially employed to increase level of safety because the chance for error is lower than with using personal protective equipment (PPE). The initial costs of passive protection, although potentially high, are usually more reasonable than the long-term price of PPE. Passive protection may however not be guaranteed if fall hazard exposure is limited in terms of frequency and duration. An complete hazard assessment supplies the information vital to making these types of decisions to increase cost-effectiveness. Check out this website at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9oO4asSJU8 and know more about safety.
3. Fall Restraint Systems
Fall restraint systems are installed so that a fall cannot take place. Fall restraint systems count on PPE to reduce the worker's range of movement, hence curtailing their ability to physically travel to the fall hazard. While fall restraint systems are typically underutilized as they are not mentioned in particular in a lot of regulations, they remain preferred over fall arrest systems. Free fall distance is not a problem for fall restraint systems, so clearance requirements, arresting forces, secondary injuries, etc. are virtually ruled out. Know about ansi z359 here!
4.Fall Arrest Systems
Fall restraint systems are set up so that falls are allowed by will be arrested within safe force and clearance limits. Fall arrest systems have more risks to them, as the falling worker needs to be stopped with a harmless amount of force and also prevented from hitting the ground or any surrounding structure. Adequate training for fall restraint as well as fall arrest systems is a must.
5. Administrative Controls
Administrative controls are preventive solutions applied to minimize the probability of a fall. These include but are not limited to safety monitors, warning horns and control lines. Also, it has to be noted that OSHA regulates the use of multiple administrative controls, and it is the job of the fall protection program administrator to know the jurisdictions and regulations that are applicable. Be sure to view here for more details!