Fall Protection

The dangers of falling can be found in the most unlikely of places.

“Better safe than sorry.” – American Proverb

To the masses of Joe Publics walking down your city streets every day, fall protection may only include mittens and a scarf, but it is important for those working at heights to know the important difference between the protective measures required for a chilly breeze as opposed to a large vertical plummet; if you have ever worked in high places then you too have had the ever-creeping fear of slipping and going splat grow in the back of your mind.

However, as luck may have it the people who work for our government were afraid of heights and they added law stating that anyone working from over about three meters high is required to be protected from the dangers of falling.  This legislation does not cover people installing fall protection though, or the legalities would become absurd.

Fall protection comes in two general forms: you can either stop a fall from causing harm, or you can stop the fall from happening in the first place.  These two prevention methods are called fall arrest and fall restraint, respectively.

Falling: Don’t do it.

Fall Arrest

“If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you’ll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.” – Jack Handy

Billy Slippyfeet found himself unwittingly working with a newly developed fall arrest system: snow.

Fall arrest has multiple forms, which all involve the reduction of injury during a fall.  This method typically involves netting or a lifeline.  A net system will catch a falling person and slow them down as they tumble into the center of the sagging net.  For a lifeline, four elements are used together for stopping a fall: an anchor, a harness, a connector, and a decelerator.

The Golden Gate Bridge introduces a ground breaking safety net and lifeline system

An anchor is the point to which the arresting system is tied; the anchorage will be designed to never fail under the highest falling loads.  Common forms of anchorage include hooks which are bolted (adhesive, through-bolt, and mechanical) or welded to a rigid structure, beam clamps, and beam trolleys (For anchorage moving with one degree of freedom.).  Furthermore, for ladder systems, a line running the length of the ladder may be used as an anchor with a rope grab system, described below.

Typical anchorage

Beam clamp

Beam trolley [6]

Anchorage being tested for strength

The harness is what is attached to the person, to allow for a connection between the person and the anchor.  Harnesses have existed for the belt and the full body, however now the full body harness is the common selection as belts have a tendency to cause too much stress to the waist in a fall or in the worst case even allow a worker to drift out of the belt.   Full body harnesses must be adequately designed to have strong enough connections for the load of falling and to support the body without causing physical damage.

Example of equipping and using a full body harness

Well I am afraid that is all for today! For the exciting conclusion to this article you will have to wait for a few days, but eventually the link will be provided below.  Stay tuned for connectors, decelerators, and fall restraint!  Same bat time, same bat channel.