Height Safety and the Safety Harness

Whenever people discuss working from heights plus height safety nearly everyone visualise individuals working on top of scaffolding or else long ladders, high tower blocks or else possibly on a cliff top, which is understandable, in spite of this in 2005 the working at height regulations became law and they state that preventative measures should be taken “where an individual might fall a distance liable to cause injury”, so as one can see this might include standing on a chair!

Whilst operating from possibly hazardous heights, whether it is 1 metre or 100 metres up, the regulations additionally state that you need to do a method statement and also a risk evaluation; have a strategy in place for emergency rescue should someone fall; give teaching for all those who will work from heights and frequently have all fall protection apparatus inspected; all these details must be kept on record.

There will be in excess of a million injuries along with 200 fatalities each year as a result of falling from heights; If these individuals had worn the correct safety harness and utilised it in the proper way then many of these accidents may well have been prevented. Complacency is all too regularly the leading reason; "I will be all right" along with "it isn't too high are statements all of us say but this is just not acceptable nowadays, your life could be seriously at risk! is that a chance you want to take?

By means of utilizing the correct style of safety harness for the planned task it is possible to greatly reduce all severe risks. Next we are going to take a look at the assorted varieties of safety apparatus generally available for use whilst working from heights.

Harnesses for various tasks will be available, with differing numbers of anchor positions and also the option of adding a fall arrest system, fall restraint system and retrieval blocks to the main harness used for extra flexibility and security.

A number of suppliers will sell these safety items in kit form to ensure you get all you would need for certain tasks, regularly offered will be construction workers kits; scaffolder kits and restraint kits, crane maintenance kits, roofer’s kits as well as work positioning kits. Most of these kits will have accessories to enhance the actual harness, including safety lanyards and/or fall arrest blocks and so forth.

Let us next investigate the accessories; the fall arrest system halts a fall mid-flow, they enable the user manouevre about with additional freedom, yet if they do transpire to fall, the fall arrest system will stop/catch the wearer a specific distance downward based on its span. The fall restraint system, however, whilst enabling only restricted travel will prevent a fall happening in the first place and so restrains the wearer. Retractable fall arrestors work remarkably well as they retain tension in the safety line at all times; the rescue block is quite similar except allows another person to retrieve a fallen worker swiftly.

An additional height safety tool is the suspension rope and works similar to abseiling so the user can suspend on the rope; safety lines will be always used on these items and can be observed in use on the renovation/washing of high buildings.

Any employers who have workers working from heights are obligated to provide the correct safety paraphernalia and make sure it's always retained in good, safe working condition, and thus inspected on a regular basis. It is also suggested that the users of any safety apparatus should all endure  some kind of coaching since it is very important to know how they perform, and the way to determine deceleration rates through a fall, generally known as the force factor, and in addition calculating the possible fall distance;  by knowing this information the calculations may be added into the risk assessment prior to the task being undertaken and therefore lowering any potential risk even more.

All varieties of safety harnesses will be particularly designed to hold the wearer in an vertical position to enable speedy rescue should they fall. This can be an extra good incentive for instruction as they are going to instruct you how to rescue someone fast, if they fall, this will be crucial because the impact of the fall and the force and placing of the leg straps on the harness can hamper blood supply to the legs which may well bring about severe problems if they are not detached from that position quickly.

We can conclude from the above that it's not just vital to wear a safety harness whilst operating from a height but additionally it is crucial to wear the correct type for the task.