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Fundamentally fall arrest is a system that allows you to fall from height!

This goes against everything we teach or preach and argue about as health and safety practitioners, we don’t want people falling, a fall becomes an incident, and incident may become a near miss dependant on our internal reporting structure and so the paperwork starts.

Much better to keep people nice and safe when working at height, don’t let them near the edge, don’t let them fall, don’t let them become a statistic.

So how and why does this happen?

  • Lack of knowledge, unlikely in industry.
  • Lack of understanding, most likely.
  • Lack of the correct equipment, most of the time.

It is the experience of the author that in most cases where falls from height occur there is a lack of correct equipment. The equipment supplied is unsuitable for the task, poorly maintained, incorrectly used or just plain missing!

Case Study 1 – Lack of Knowledge

During a recent position as a construction safety manager in Afghanistan the author “picked up the reins” from the previous incumbent. The local workforce had been given training on safe use of harnesses when working at height, however when the previous manager left, so did their requirement to wear the harnesses, in their mind.

The author witnessed firsthand a worker walking along single width block walls with a two metre trench on one side and uncapped rebar on the other, above his head was a fairly taught steel wire rope secured to the side of the building.

Upon talking with the interpreter and asking the man to come down, he jumped across the rebar and landed on the ground.

Upon questioning, it was revealed that the man was a “mud man” he spreads the mud like plaster on the outer walls of the buildings to weather proof them, asked why he was on the wall he explained he was checking the wall before starting work, he had jumped down because the nearest access point was over fifty feet in either direction from where they were all standing.

When asked about the overhead line his reply was “we hook on there with the harness”, he then went on to explain that he had worked like this for over twenty years and couldn’t see the need for the harness.

It transpired that the previous safety manager had purchased several new harnesses, and delivered training on their safe use, safe fitting and why to “hook on”.

The local workers just could not see anything wrong with the way they were doing their jobs, needless to say further education was delivered to the workers.

Case Study 2 – Lack of Knowledge

What is the difference between fall restraint and fall arrest?

To a safety practitioner, one allows no access to the fall point, one allows the fall but mitigates the circumstances.

To the average worker there appears to be no difference at all!

Workers repairing the drive motors on top of electric revolving gates, no access for a platform, but a solid “perch” for the workers to sit whilst working on the motors.

Height from the ground 2.1 metres.

Maintenance teams provided with and trained in the safe use of harnesses and lanyards, however the lanyards supplied by stores were fall arrest. The workers had no knowledge of the difference but they were clipped on so everything was fine!

During the maintenance work there was a failure to isolate the power to the gates and at one point the rotating arm in the head moved, this was such a shock to one of the workers that he slipped back and fell from his “perch”. The resounding thump as he hit the concrete suddenly focused everyone’s attention.

During the investigation that followed it was identified that the harness was properly used, it was identified that lanyards were attached so why had it happened?

The maximum length for a fall arrest lanyard is 2m (BS EN 354);
The maximum length of the “shock absorber pack” when deployed is 1.75m (BS EN 355);
Allowing for 0.5m “stretch” in the whole system under shock loading;
Allowing for an average worker height of 1.75m.

We now have an operating distance approaching SIX METRES before the fall arrest will fully deploy and mitigate a fall, and this assumes an anchor point above the uses as recommended and a correct fitting between the shoulder blades of the personal anchor point.

The workers and storeman didn’t know the difference between fall arrest and fall restraint and one man could have been seriously injured or even killed.

Case Study 3 – Lack of Equipment

Time and again we read in the “trade press” about someone falling from or through a roof, normally with very serious or tragic consequences.

When challenged the answers vary, but the reason behind the fall and seriousness of the consequence is lack of proper equipment.

“It was a five minute job, I didn’t think it would be a problem”
“If you do it properly you won’t fall, I’ve been doing it for years”

From a paralysed former roof worker –
“ We never bothered with harnesses, all that messing about trying to hook it on, you can’t on a roof”

In the Middle East there is a perception that life is cheap, labour comes from across the world to make money, there is never a shortage of people willing to “do the job”.

On the high rise buildings that adorn the skyline of many cities in the region you will often find workers on or near an unprotected edge. This isn’t a fall that will end well, twenty stories or more up, no barriers, no harnesses, no fall arrest or restraint it is accepted working practice.

Even if the thought process was engaged, trying to convince these workers to change a cultural habit is an enormous task. Many have lost friends or family on the construction sites, it’s a way of life and accidents happen.

We could try education, but cultural change takes a long time, we could try enforcement and hit the workers where it hurts, in their pocket, but is it really their fault?

Many of the workers the author has spoken to say they would use a fall arrest / restraint system if it was available!

We have large national and international companies working on projects around the world. Many of these companies are US or European based where there are guidelines and laws on the use of fall arrest systems, these companies are still making millions despite the economic downturn yet fail to provide the basic mitigation systems for their workers.

They subscribe to the “life is cheap” ethos and if there is little or no legislation to force them to adhere to existing standards why should they bother?

So, to answer my initial question – What is fall arrest?

Fall arrest is a personal fall mitigation system, usually consisting of a full body harness and a pre-packed shock absorbing lanyard.

When worn correctly, anchored appropriately and allowed room to deploy effectively in the event of a fall it will mitigate the injuries suffered by many workers and even save lives.

We now appreciate that it is used and abused due to –
a lack of knowledge of the hazards and risks in the task;
a lack of understanding of the systems basic requirements;
a lack of commitment from employers to provide suitable and sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE);

As safety practitioners it is our job to educate the workforce and management on the hazards and risks that they ”take for granted”

Challenge the use of fall arrest over fall restraint, get the workers to understand the difference and the hazards and risks involved in their use, educate the management to influence the purchasers to buy in the correct equipment to save lives and the devastating injuries caused by un-protected falls.

HOT OFF THE PRESS

As safety practitioner we have probably all seen the “expert” on the roof, doing the same job they have done for years.

Unfortunately complacency is a bigger killer than the three examples above and it seems to affect one trade more than any other.

The news article below shows potentially a lack of knowledge, the deceased was a labourer NOT a scaffolder; a lack of understanding, either from the deceased or the company and missing equipment, if the scaffold was there then there was no excuse to not wear appropriate fall arrest because they had the perfect “tie off points”

A scaffolding firm has been ordered to pay more than £100,000 in fines and costs after an employee was killed falling through a warehouse roof.

A married father-of-one 42, from Leigh, was helping to dismantle scaffolding when he stepped onto a fragile skylight and fell 13m to the floor below.

Atherton-based S&S Scaffolding Ltd was prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) over serious safety breaches following an investigation into the incident at the warehouse on Pennine Way, Skelmersdale on 14 December 2010.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Mr xxxxxxx had helped to erect the scaffolding at the end of October ahead of work to replace damaged cladding and guttering on the roof. He returned to the site on 14 December as part of the dismantling team, although he was employed by S&S Scaffolding as a labourer rather than a scaffolder.

Mr xxxxxxx had just returned to the roof with another labourer after his lunch break when he stepped on a skylight, which broke and gave way. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The court was told there were around 80 fragile skylights on one half of the roof, with each one measuring about one metre by two metres. However, the company failed to arrange for covers to be put over the skylights nearest to where its employees were working to prevent them falling through.

S&S Scaffolding Ltd pleaded guilty to single breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company, of Arley Way in Atherton, Greater Manchester, was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £31,517 in prosecution costs.

HSE inspector Jacqueline Western said after the hearing: “Mr xxxxxxx died because S&S Scaffolding didn’t do enough to protect him from the risks of working at height, despite being a specialist scaffolding firm and being fully aware of the dangers of falls. “It would have been relatively easy to cover the fragile skylights near to where the employees were working to prevent anyone from falling through if they accidently stepped on one. “Alternatively, netting or crash mats could have been provided under the skylights to reduce the chance of a worker being injured if they fell. “Sadly, none of these options were chosen by S&S Scaffolding and Mr xxxxxxx lost his life as a result.”

Source – Construction News Website 11 July 2013

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