No fall protection equipment — regardless of how effective — can save an employee who is not properly trained in its use. Therefore, to maintain a safe and productive environment for workers at height, proper fall protection training is the first and most important step in your fall protection program. 

Imagine that on the first day at your new job, the foreman tosses you a harness and a 6-foot lanyard and says, “Be careful out there!” That may seem like an extreme example of a woefully inadequate fall protection training program, but I will bet dollars to donuts it happens more often than we think.

Telling employees to watch their step isn’t enough to eliminate slip, trip and fall injuries in production areas. Like other safety hazards, slip, trip and fall hazards can be identified and in many cases eliminated.

Gravity doesn’t need to go to school. She is a master at pulling all objects toward the center of our blue planet and has been doing so since the dawn of time. So, yep, she is the grand master. Whereas we mere mortals are still learning how to counter her effects.

Year after year, falls continue to hold the dubious distinction of the most frequent cause of fatalities at construction sites.

Honeywell Industrial Safety has announced the 2016 Honeywell Safety Training schedule which includes courses taught by experienced instructors through live demonstrations and hands-on training.

If your job requires wearing or specifying health and safety equipment, you have a convenient new resource with the 3M Safety Roadshow. 3M is hitting the road in its mobile training center – packed with personal protective equipment and industry experts – to deliver in-person education at work sites, industry events and distributor trade shows across the United States.

OSHA inspectors driving by a construction worksite on Oct. 20, 2014 observed roofers working without fall protection. During the inspection that followed, the agency found that Franco Roofing, Inc. of Yonkers was cited for similar fall hazard violations in June of 2011 and then again in July of 2012, for worksites located in Yonkers, New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut.