SAFETY
Fall Protection in the Workplace: Laws, Responsibilities, and Best Practices By Scott L. Weiland PE, SE, James T. Boatright PE, OSHA Qualified Person Falls are the leading cause of preventable death and lost day injuries in the workplace. While most falls are from a higher to lower level, the majority of fatalities occur from heights of between 11 ft. and 20 ft., and most ladder fatalities occur from heights of 10 ft. or less. Knowing these statistics, having a managed fall protection program not only helps satisfy the law, but it is the right thing to do to protect yourself, your workforce, property owners and property managers.
Laws
Until 1970, all states had their own safety regulations. However, as result of protests for the improvement of worker safety, President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the OSH Act. The Act was the culmination of almost a century of endeavors by the states and the federal government to mitigate the vulnerabilities of employees exposed to the hazards of the Industrial Age. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was officially formed as an agency of the U. S. Department of Labor on April 28, 1972, the date that the OSH Act became effective. Shortly thereafter, thousands of its first consensus standards were published.
OSHA is charged with assuring safe and healthful conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, outreach, and education and compliance assistance. In addition, the OSH Act’s general duty clause requires every employer to provide every employee with a place of employment free from recognized hazards. Among additional workers’ rights created by the OSH Act, employees are to be kept informed of workplace hazards, be allowed to report hazards to either the employer or OSHA without retaliation, and to receive training to minimize the exposure to known hazards.
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) are the published federal laws of the United States. Of the 50 Titles contained within the CFR, Title 29 – Labor includes Part 1900 that deals with OSHA. Part 1910 – General Industry is a catch-all of Occupational Safety and Health Standards that cover all workers unless they are covered by a more specific regulation such as those for Shipyard, Marine Terminal, Long Shoring, Construction, and Agriculture work.
To better protect workers from falls, OSHA issued a significant update and clarification to its Walking-Working Surface standards in 2017. This update was based on advances in technology, industry best practices, and national consensus standards from American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and International Window Cleaning Association (IWCA). The primary intent of the update was to provide more flexibility and options for fall protection so there would be no excuse for not using it. Additionally,
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Insight • Special Issue, 2022
