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10 Safety Tips for Working at Heights

Whether you work at heights every day or just once in a while, your focus on safety
during those times is of utmost importance. It takes one mistake to turn a
routine work task into a fatality. Falls are debilitating. Falls are deadly.

You must be prepared to protect your employees each and every time they could be
exposed.

1. Use Rails

Passive protection is the easiest way to keep your workers safe and achieve
compliance because there is nothing that they need to actually do to keep
themselves safe, other than stay within the rails.
Rails can be built by jobsite carpenters (as long as they meet the requirements set or
pre-fabricated from a manufacturer and installed. Pre-fabricated railings can be
permanently affixed or portable to suit your needs. Regardless of which type you
use, once in place, youll find rails are the easiest fall protection system to use.

2. Select the Proper PPE

Personal Fall Arrest Systems (PFAS), you need to ensure youre choosing the
proper equipment. All full-body harnesses that meet ANSI standards will perform the
same. Its functionality that youre getting or sacrificing, such as extra D-rings,
fireproof material, or arc-safe design.

Workers welding at heights, then a standard nylon harness is probably not going to
be what you need. Perhaps Kevlar is the way to go.

Harnesses are not one-size-fits-all. Make sure your workers can properly adjust
their harnesses so that they fit correctly.

Lanyards need to be properly selected as well. Depending on the height at which


you are working, a 6 lanyard with a deceleration device will not protect your
worker. Instead, a retractable lanyard may be necessary. Each situation is different,
so you need to evaluate your working conditions and the task to be performed in
order to give your employees something that will actually protect them.

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3. Inspect Your PPE

Employees can use all the equipment they want, if theyre not inspecting it, it could
fail at any time, they should also be inspected by the user prior to every use. In
order for this to happen, your users need to understand what it is theyre looking for,
what is acceptable and what is not, and what to do when they find a problem. The
inspection should be thorough, but does not need to take a lot of time.

4. Ensure You Understand Fall Distance

You can wear all the fall protection equipment in the world, but if it allows you to hit
the lower level before it engages, its pointless. It is not unusual to go onto a
construction site or observe a maintenance crew in a plant and see a worker at 10-
12 off the ground wearing a 6 lanyard with a deceleration device. While at first
glance you might think that it should work, there are a number of reasons why it
wont. First, you have to add 3.5 of distance to account for the deployment of your
deceleration device. Already that means the lanyard itself is 9.5 long. Unless you
are a 6 tall person, this is some pretty bad news. Your actual fall distance needs to
not only include the length of your lanyard when deployed, but also your body length
below the D-ring and any sag in your harness and anchor system. Count on a good
18.5 minimum before youre able to use a 6 lanyard with deceleration device.

5. Ensure the Selection of Acceptable Anchor Point

PVC pipe? Not an anchor. Decorative steel? Not an anchor. In fact, many more
things will NOT be an acceptable anchor point than WILL be an acceptable anchor
point. Why? Because the anchor point must support not just the weight of the
person attached, but 5000 lbs. per person attached (or a factor of 2 if youre having
an engineer determine your anchor). Many fixtures are not going to withstand those
forces. Structural steel using a proper beam clamp? Sure. A manufactured roofing
cart or other manufactured anchor? Sure, if installed properly. Short of that, youre
going to need some documentation and/or an engineers approval to use something
as an anchor point.

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6. Ensure You Select the Best Means of Working at Heights (Scaffold vs Lift vs
Ladder)

In some situations, a scaffold is going to be your best solution to work at heights be


able to equip them with rails, making your fall protection much easier to
address. Other times, scaffolds will be infeasible and you can consider using lift.
Depending on the type of lift, you may or may not need to wear a harness and a
lanyard (and properly tie off). Still other times, youll need to use a ladder, at which
point the requirements for fall protection become trickier. In the end, thinking that a
ladder is going to suffice no matter what situation youre in (or a lift, or a scaffold, or
any other means of elevation) is only asking for problems. Evaluate your situation
carefully and determine what the right piece of equipment is for that task in that
location.

7. Use Ladders Properly

Dont assume that just because you have a ladder at home, you know what youre
doing. In fact, the safest way to live on this planet is to always assume you dont
know what youre doing. In most cases, youre going to be right! Ladders lie at the
source of many industrial and workplace accidents simply because we take their use
for granted. Ladders are familiar. You use them to hang your Christmas lights, paint
the living room, change that annoying hard to reach high-hat bulb, and clean your
gutters. Ladders are dangerous. When improperly used, theyre REALLY
dangerous.
First, make sure that ladders are the best way to do what youre doing, then make
sure your employees know how to properly use them. 3 extension, 4:1 ratio, 3
points of contact, and secured. If you dont know what that refers to, you may not
know how to use an extension ladder properly. You know that sticker on a step
ladder that says, Dont stand on this step or above.? If you think that means you
can step there but no higher, you might not know how to use a step-ladder. Provide
proper training to your employees so that they use the tools they are being given the
right way.

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8. Know Your Roofing Regulations

Warning lines at 6 with a monitor are only allowed for roofers performing roofing
work (and 10 back from the edge if there is mechanical equipment traveling in that
direction). There is NO situation in which a warning line is an acceptable means of
fall protection that does not also include a dedicated monitor being present. There
are a few that allow for a monitor with no warning line but none that allow a warning
line with no monitor.

9. Ensure Proper Use of Lifts

Properly tied-off not only means that they need to be secured to the engineered
anchor point designed with the lift, but it means that they cant wrap their lanyard
around the rails and they need to have a lanyard that is actually going to protect
them at the height at which they are working. With scissor lifts, things are a little
different. While the site you are working on or the owner of the facility/project may
require you to tie-off in a scissor lift, there is no regulatory requirement to do
so. However, the moment you forget to close your gate or secure your chain, you
are no longer protected by the rails and are now in a fall protection violation. Its that
simple. Also, keep your feet planted firmly on the platform. Both of them.

10. Train, Train, Train

If you want your employees to work safely at heights, they must be properly trained.

Not only is training required by law, there is just too much room for error and
confusion when it comes to a person without the proper knowledge trying to protect
themselves at heights.

Falls are the leading killer in construction year after year. Many people in other
industries die from falls as well. They are deadly.

Working safely at heights does not come by chance. Working safely at heights takes
preparation, education, and determination.

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