A Few Things Employers Must Know About Fall Protection Products

Occupational Safety and Health Organization (OSHA) has recently published new final rule regarding fall protection that has made their intention clear – that is to protect every single utility worker from falls irrespective of the workplace and the task they were performing. According to OSHA, providing and ensuring complete protection to employees is the obligation and also duty of the employers and that makes it important for the companies to implement fall protection products focusing on this perspective for saving themselves from facing a lot of troubles later on. A few key components of a fall arrest system and how they can be used for protecting your employees are discussed here in this article.

As per OSHA regulations, providing fall protection training to employees who are exposed to fall hazards is mandatory for the organizations. In spite of all precautions taken, falls consistently remain to be the major cause of fatalities at workplace and that is why an employer must also ensure that his workers have received the right fall arrest training. As an employer one should know that fall protection training is classified in four different levels – awareness, authorized users, competent personnel and qualified person training, but all these levels must be designed for helping workers in recognizing the hazards they will be facing at workplace and also the necessary steps to be taken for minimizing them.

For an employer it is important that he is aware of all the different types of fall protection products so that he can decide which of them should be most suitable for a specific workplace. It is also important for him to understand how different products are operated as well as the difference between various product functions so that he selects products that are best suitable for his workers and also the specific type of hazards they face at the workplace. A complete fall protection system has three vital components – fall arrest anchor, body support and means of connection and it is important that each of these three components are in their right place and are also properly used for providing maximum protection to the workers.

Though all these three components are vital for complete worker safety, the connecting device is considered as the most critical link in a fall protection system as this is the component that bears maximum force whenever a fall occurs. That is also the reason that one must be extremely careful about his selection of material and construction of the system and also while inspecting and maintaining it. A fall arrest anchor is defined by OSHA as the secure point at which lanyards, life lines or deceleration devices are attached. The anchorage is actually a fixed structural component used for supporting the exerted forces during a fall. It is important to make the workers aware of these components and their functionality during fall protection training to make sure that they rightly handle the arrest system to work with complete safety at elevated positions. Caisafety.com is among the leaders in this particular segment and you can visit their website if you want to know more.

About The Author

Brent Owens is a safety expert who works hand in hand with many construction companies across the country to ensure that employees are always protected while at work. He recommends CAISafety.com as the best name to trust for high quality fall protection systems.