Fall Protection: Are You Fully Prepared?
Preparing your workplace for 2018 means taking a critical look at your current fall protection system and making improvements where necessary.
- Guardrails
- Mezzanine fall protection gates
- Harnesses
- Equipment guarding
- Access control gates
- Skylight protection
Step By Step: How Your Company Can Prevent Falls
Fall protection is likely already a high priority. But with changing regulations and the constant risk of injury, there is no place for complacency when it comes to the measures your company has taken to protect its workforce. Thorough fall protection requires a culture of safety as well as fall prevention measures. It includes a multi-faceted program implemented company-wide, ideally comprised of these essential steps:
1. Learn. Familiarise yourself with fall protection rules from HSE and make sure you know any additional rules your company has in place.
2. Monitor. Thoroughly investigate workplace fall hazards on a regular basis.
3. Change. Eliminate these hazards whenever possible.
4. Educate. Teach your workforce about the remaining fall hazards and proper workplace safety protocol.
5. Prevent. Install and maintain fall prevention and protection devices.
An intimate knowledge of the workplace and the regulations that apply to it is crucial. Floor holes, elevated platforms, open-sided platforms and floors, as well as drops to lower levels must be monitored carefully. Another important consideration is that fall protection can differ based on the location and the type of workplace, so what works in one location may not in another.
Floor holes and skylights require toe-boards and railings, floor hole covers, or skylight protection guards. Elevated platforms and potentially dangerous equipment (including conveyer belts, vats, and heavy machinery) are often better suited to guardrails and other equipment guarding. In work sites where the potential danger of falling is extreme, you'll need to implement even further safety measures, such as safety harnesses and lines, safety nets, mezzanine fall protection gates, and access control gates.
A truly prepared workplace understands that falls are not hypothetical. In other words, instead of asking yourself what you would do if a worker falls, make sure you know how they will be protected when they fall.
For help, advice and a site risk assessment contact Rotrex OnSite. We are the UK’s leading provider of fall protection equipment.
