This past spring, a contractor faced a potential $70,000 fine from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for committing a violation of fall protection safety. The violation is considered ?one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.? Allegedly, workers were exposed to a 50 foot fall while working without fall protection on a building's roof. Employees are required by the United State Department of Labor Law 1926.501(b)(2)(i) to use fall protection when working from heights of 6 feet or greater.
Too many accidents occur every year in the workplace and too many times it is because of the lack of safety equipment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 253,440 reported cases if work-related non-fatal falls, compared to 814 fatal falls reported by private industries in 2007. Accidents are not inevitable, and falls are no different. With the right combination of education, equipment and training, you can eliminate falls from your workplace. Working in a high-risk industry is dangerous enough, so whether you're on a roof, platform, ladder, moving vehicle, or high rise, you need protection from falling. Falls from scaffolds, roofs and ladders constitute half of all disabling falls and they are often due to loss of balance because of tripping, slipping, and shifting or unstable ladders. Unfortunately, you cannot trust your body to have excellent balance at all times. With the right fall protection equipment, you can prevent disabling injuries and fatalities in high-risk workplaces.
Fall protection is more than wearing a hard hat and a safety harness. It starts with prevention and equipment. First you must identify all the potential fall hazards in your work environment: unprotected floor openings and edges, shafts, skylights, stairwells, and roof openings. Inspect fall protection equipment for defects. Use general equipment and installations like covers, handrails, guardrails and parapet walls to help prevent falls from happening. Select and wear personal fall protection equipment appropriate for the job at hand. Educate employees on current hazardous areas, signs of potential hazards, and have them continuously monitor for ongoing fall protection. This is as easy as a weekly safety meeting, discussing procedures in using fall protection equipment and responding to emergencies.
If your company is in need of new fall protection equipment, now is a great time to upgrade for the summer months. Established in 1992, Empire Safety and Supply has been providing clients with quality fall protection equipment for high-risk work environment needs. Their product lines range from harnesses and connecting devices, to fall protection systems and rescue/escape. Empire Safety and Supply represent over 800 manufacturers to offer clients the fall protection solutions and information they require. Empire Safety and Supply has a Warehouse and Inventory Support Team with the capability to ship thousands of products across the country and globe.
Safety is always a chief concern in construction. Fall protection is used whenever a person has to work 5 or more feet off of the ground, as stated by OSHA Standards. A fall protection device is essentially a harness, which is strapped around an employee's body and secured by a lanyard to a secure place on a permanent structure. It takes some doing to put on the harness. Initially, an employee must grab the harness by the metal ring located on the back, where one end of the lanyard is connected, and hold it at waist height. Tangled ends must be straightened before the harness is stepped into and the shoulder straps secured. The chest strap must then be secured, followed by the individual leg straps. When finished, the loose end of the lanyard can be connected to either one of the lower hip rings on your sides.
Safety equipment and fall protection have been used, in one form or another, since the completion of the first 10 story skyscraper for the Chicago-based Home Insurance Building in 1885. Its use of the iron skeletal frame would revolutionize modern building methods and lead to the increased use of the skyscraper in downtown urban areas. Though the build has long since been demolished, its construction did provide Chicago with a new skyline and construction workers with a new insight into safety.
A skyscraper, generally, is any building over 500 feet. Any building that exceeds 984 feet is considered to be a supertall. After World War II, the Soviet Union erected seven ambitious "Stalin Towers" in Moscow. During the 1950's and 60's, Madrid led the rest of Europe with respect to the number of skyscrapers in development. To date, Hong Kong has the most skyscrapers in the world, with 7,558, while New York City comes in second with 5,535.
Centuries ago, the temples and palaces of the world took precedence; today, the skyscraper has supplant both as the symbol of commerce and prosperity. It is predicted skyscrapers will be more prevalent in the decades to come due to the lack of available land. And as the skyscrapers of the future break ground today, there will be a lasting demand for safety equipment and fall protection.
The Titan fall protection devices are among the best made on the market today. The Titan product line is not just limited to fall protection. They offer an assortment of safety hard hats that can be customized, safety glasses and goggles, work gloves, steel-toed boots and shoes, ear plugs and ear muffs, safety vests, gas detectors, and dust masks and respirators. They also produce everything from flashlights to hand sanitizers to first aid kits.
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