What Does OSHA say?
OSHA(Occupational Safety and Health Administration) says that
1) To prevent workers from being injured due to falls in general industry, employers must commit to
- No matter the height, if it is possible for any worker to fall into or onto dangerous areas, employers’ erect guardrails and toe boards to prevent falls and injuries
- Provide a guard rail and toe board surrounding elevated open sided platforms, floors or runways or a floor hole cover to guard floor holes into which workers could accidentally walk.
2) To protect workers: Employers have a responsibility to protect workers from exposure to serious injury or fatality while working at heights of four feet (general industry) and six feet (construction industry). Furthermore, OSHA requires that should a worker do work over dangerous equipment or machinery, the employer has a duty to provide fall protection.
- Providing other types of fall protection systems that may be necessary such as safety harness and line, safety gates, mobile work platforms, cross over platforms, stair railings and handrails.
According to OSHA fall protection includes fall prevention, fall arrest systems, and measurements for assessing fall hazards and controls. Therefore, it is possible to think of fall protection as a global phrasing which includes fall prevention.
What does fall prevention systems include? It includes systems such as