By Holly Kirkwood
Fall Protection
There are a whole lot of things we can control on a job site. Labor hours, budgets and skill sets are all things we can improve with a little bit of effort. They are all factors in our safety and our ability to go home to our families at the end of the day. There’s one factor we’ll never be able to improve or manipulate: gravity. Proper precautions are our only chance of surviving a fall. What can you do to be prepared if that fateful day comes?
Falltech
Falltech is a safety product line for active and passive fall protection. When used correctly, their products help prevent falling accidents on any job site. According to Safety+Health Magazine, fall protection is the number one citation OSHA gives every year. Falltech is dedicated to bringing the best preventative products to the market including anchors, bodywear and connectors, your fall protection ABC’s.
(A)nchor Points
It’s important to check off your “ABC’s” when you are purchasing fall equipment. To start, you should always have an anchor point. The anchor point should have a minimum 5,000-pound load bearing weight. Falltech offers cross arms straps or pass through straps, the most popular products in construction. These come in multiple lengths that allow you to wrap around the anchor points.
Concrete anchors are another facet of anchorage that provides a legal solution for job site anchorage. Workers are able to place web embeds around rebar prior to a concrete pour. Once dry, the concrete provides a solid O ring anchor point. Once you’re finished using the point, it’s a simple cut.
There are a wide array of anchorage systems available including steel, concrete, and roofing among many others. Be sure to consult your OSHA spec sheet to make sure your anchor points meet all guidelines to avoid fines and more importantly, injuries or worse.
(B)odywear
Bodywear refers to the harnesses worn that link to connecting devices. The most comfortable and popular harness Falltech offers is the Advanced ComforTech harness. Some compare this to the DBI ExoFit harness, but there are a few key features that separate the ComforTech from the pack. Most importantly for your wallet and your body is the gel padding in this FallTech harness as opposed to a foam padding in most others. The gel allows for a cooler feel and significantly longer life.
As far as safety is concerned, the most important piece of Falltech harnesses is being able to tell if they have taken a fall. In the case that a worker using a harness does have a fall, the harness itself will tell you it is “out of service” and must be recertified before reuse. Below are two ways Falltech helps indicate whether a harness has been affected:
• Red thread and tags along the straps are unsewn and made longer
• Brass grommets used as belt holes are stretched into ovals
(C)onnecting Devices
The “C” in ABC is for connecting devices. These include anything that brings the anchorage and the harness together. They come in multiple forms, but the two most widely used are self-retracting lanyards (yo-yos) and shock absorbing lanyards. These devices allow workers to move about their project easily with the knowledge that the connecting devices will help decelerate any fall. It’s important to have this device in order to dissipate or limit the substantial amount of energy imposed on a worker during a fall event.
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Falltech provides contractors with the best fall protection in the industry. Their products give peace of mind to contractors and businesses alike. There’s no reason every worker on your sites shouldn’t go home to their family safe at the end of every day. Whether you choose FallTech or someone else, put your team in a harness that will send them home safe at the end of every day!