When do you need Fall Protection?

Are you unsure if your project needs fall protection? Read on for a quick guide! The first step to ensuring safety is to understand fall protection and why it’s so vital.

Essentially fall protection is the provision of safety measures as outlined in standards and regulations (such as OSHA) for maintenance workers, window washers and others working at heights. These measures can include: horizontal lifelines, guardrails, safety nets, and more (we’ll get into when these are required later).

With falls being one of the top 4 causes of fatalities in construction in the US (CY 2018, Federal OSHA), there is no question that these safety measures need to be taken seriously.

A Fall Protection Breakdown

Fall Protection can be either passive or active. A passive system does not require personal protective equipment or any participation from the workers themselves. Guardrails are an excellent example of passive fall protection.

An active system is dynamic, changes as it is used and requires direct participation from workers. Active fall protection is then further broken down into: Fall Restraint and Fall Arrest.

Fall Restraint

Fall Restraint systems prevent a fall from occurring. Horizontal Lifelines are an excellent example of this; when maintenance workers are working close to a drop (such as near the edge of a rooftop), they are required to tie off to the horizontal lifelines, which prevent them from reaching the edge and falling.

Fall Arrest

Fall Arrest systems stop a fall once it has occurred. Safety and tie back anchors are the most common fall arrest solution. Workers tie off to anchors when working near, the roof's edge; thus, if a fall is to occur, the anchors will arrest the fall and allow the wroker to safely hang for up to 30 minutes or until emergency personnel arrive.

Fall Restrict

Ontario regulations also identify Fall Restricting, which is classified as a type of Fall Arrest system. The difference is that a Fall Restricting system is designed to limit a fall to a shorter distance. For example, if there is maintenance work required right at a roofs edge, a fall restricting system will provide access to the area by allowing a worker to fall but limiting the distance of the fall to the area near the drop where the maintenance is required. In these instances, the system must come with a lanyard equipped with a shock absorber to limit the force placed on the worker.

In the US a fall restricting system is just referred to as Fall Arrest.

Determining Factors:

In Canada, if any section of the parapet wall is less than 36 inches and a worker is subject to a 10ft fall, Fall Protection is required.

In the USA if any section of the parapet wall is less than 42inches and a worker is subject to a 4 foot fall, Fall Protection is required.

Fall Restraint systems provide access and egress from hazard zones, which are described as any area within 2m (6ft6in) from a drop.

Whether you are an architect, general contractor or building owner, fall protection is an important concept to keep in mind from the very beginning. Ensuring the correct systems are designed for each building requires collaboration between architects, general contractors, buildings owners and your fall protection providers.

At Pro-Bel, we not only engineer, manufacture, supply and install fall protection systems, our expertise in industry codes and regulations provides comprehensive liability protection to all parties involved.

If you have any other questions, or require more information on a specific system, get in touch with us!

More on the Blog