At last year’s National Safety Council Congress
and Expo, OSHA presenters noted that fall protection
was the agency’s second-most cited violation
category. That’s no surprise — fall protection
consistently ranks among OSHA’s highest number of
inspections and total fines.
Slips, trips and falls are one of the leading causes of workplace accidents each year. Many factors contribute to these accidents, including poorly maintained floors, the use of inappropriate products for floor care, cords or cables stretched across walkways, failure to clean up spills, and ignoring methods and equipment to avoid spills in the first place.
When OSHA published its proposed rule for Walking-Working Surfaces and Fall Protection last year, it was the culmination of a regulatory project that’s been brewing for decades. For the members of the Fall Protection Group of the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), it was a mark of success in efforts to get the agency to focus on protecting workers from falls.
Because a number of safety standards are available for fall protection equipment manufacture and use, it can be difficult to determine which standard should be followed, depending on the work being performed and the type of structure involved.