Falls kill more than 300 construction workers every year nation wide and hurt thousands. Deadly falls on the job are from unprotected roof edges, roof and floor openings, scaffolds, ladders, structural steel, leading edges, open shafts, and more.
What is a Fall Hazard?
A fall hazard is anything in the workplace that could cause an unintended loss of balance or bodily support and result in a fall. Fall hazards cause accidents such as the following:
- A worker walking near the edge of a loading dock falls to the lower level.
- A worker falls while climbing a defective ladder.
- A weak ladder collapses under the weight of a heavy worker carrying tools.
- A worker carrying a heavy box falls down a stairway.
Despite the examples above, the vast majority of fall hazards are foreseeable. You can identify them and eliminate or control them before they cause injuries.
Protect Yourself
Whenever fall protection is needed, make sure you have the right fall-protection system, know how it works, get trained to use it – and use it.
When eliminating the hazard cannot be accomplished with guardrails or safety nets, you need personal protective equipment (PPE) – fall-restraint systems, personal fall-arrest systems, or work positioning systems. Restraint systems keep you from falling. Fall-arrest systems stop falls. You will need a full-body harness if you use one of these systems.
