safetybriefs.org

Did you know that April 29 was National Zipper Day!!!  Did you know that zippers have played an important role in safety over the years?  Well they have.  In celebration, where can you find zippers in the safety industry?

Hello, Vest Harnesses use zippers to make these things easy as hell to put on.  If it wasn’t for the zipper, these harnesses would be just as much of a pain in the ass as every other harness on the market.

Another use of the zipper… Safety Vests!  I’m detecting a theme here.  Yes, zippers are often used in safety vests.

Other than that…  It’s pretty slim pickins’  Hmmm.  I guess I should have thought about this a tad bit more before I started writing this post.  I guess zippers also work for mouths…  or fing… hmph! hrrgh! mmrph!

Technorati Tags: fall protection, safety vests, vest harnesses

Posted in Fall Protection Articles by Safety Frank. Safety Frank is our resident all around safety guy. He specializes in making safety easier to understand though humor, video, and a general irreverence for a very stuffy industry.

(No Ratings Yet)

Contractor, Shawnlee Construction Inc, is facing a potential $70,000 fine from OSHA for allegedly committing a willful violation of fall protection safety. A willful violation is considered “one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.”

Allegedly, workers were exposed to a 50 ft fall while working without fall protection on a building’s roof. Workers are required to use fall protection when working at heights of 6 ft or greater.

$70,000 is a pretty steep fine until one ponders the consequences of an injury or death from a fall – workman’s comp, insurance or lawsuits. Yep, that gets pricy. And when one considers that falls are the number one cause of death in construction work, well, put the pieces together -spend the time and money on fall protection.

Technorati Tags: fall protection, osha, osha fines

Posted in Fall Protection Articles by Sassy Safety Glasses Queen. The Sassy Safety Glasses Queen is our resident safety glasses expert. She specializes in the news, trends, and fashions of the Safety Glasses industry while dabbling in the world of fall protection.

(No Ratings Yet)

So you’re 300 ft up from the ground working on a wind turbine. You may be up for 30 minutes or up for 8 hours. You would be crazy not to have a fall harness that is comfortable. (Okay –if you’re 300 ft in the air you already are a little crazy –right?)

So I asked Larry Board, Wind Technology Boot Camp Instructor, about the type of protection he used and recommended. He prefers and uses DBI-Sala ExoFit Harness. The ExoFit harness is more expensive than many harnesses on the market but you’re investing in comfort and fit. He thinks it’s worth it to spend more.

I liken it to buying $20 high heels or the $50 pair of heels. Any women knows that if you plan on wearing heels more than 30 minutes you buy the higher quality pair. They both may get the job done, but only one makes it much easier to focus on the job itself.  A day in cheap heals will make you cranky.

Other comfy harnesses for those up in the air regularly:

• Ultra Safe’s Ultra Pillow Harness
• Guardian’s Vest Harnesses
• DBI-Sala Exofit harness
• Guardian Monster Edge Harness (won design award!)

Technorati Tags: fall harness, fall protection comfort, wind industry safety

Posted in Fall Protection Articles by Sassy Safety Glasses Queen. The Sassy Safety Glasses Queen is our resident safety glasses expert. She specializes in the news, trends, and fashions of the Safety Glasses industry while dabbling in the world of fall protection.

(No Ratings Yet)

A recent discussion group on an online safety site was discussing passive and active fall protection. Safety experts weighed in on their preferences between the two.

First of all, for those of you who need a quick 101 in fall protection, follow along. An example of Passive Fall Protection Systems would be guardrail safety rails, netting or warning lines. It doesn’t require active participation from workers. Active fall protection would be fall harnesses, lanyards, horizontal lifelines, trolley systems and fixed point anchors.

The overwhelming majority of these safety professionals preferred passive systems when it was cost efficient (and you were able to do so) because the less one has to rely on operator, the better. There are so many more opportunities to screw things up when you throw a human into the mix.

Technorati Tags: active fall protection, fall protection systems, guardrails, horizontal lifelines

Posted in Fall Protection Articles, Safety Articles by Sassy Safety Glasses Queen. The Sassy Safety Glasses Queen is our resident safety glasses expert. She specializes in the news, trends, and fashions of the Safety Glasses industry while dabbling in the world of fall protection.

(No Ratings Yet)

Here at Safety Briefs, we are interested in safety in all fields. Currently, we have been researching safety in Wind Industry. While the Construction Industry and others have slowed, the Wind Energy Industry has taken off.  With 20% of the stimulus package being set towards renewable energy it is bound to continue to increase dramatically. And with that increase is the increased need in fall protection safety – for wind turbine construction and maintenance.

One college, Cerro Ceso Community College, has been preparing for this surge. They have introduced a 10 week Wind Technology Boot Camp that will give students entry level skills in the Wind Energy Industry.

Larry Board, the College Instructor for the boot camp, has teamed up with Airstreams Energy. I spoke with Larry Board to learn more about this class and fall protection safety in the Wind Industry.  His class covers seven different categories:

-Safety (Specifically climbing and tower rescue as the main focus)

-OSHA 10

-CPR/First Aid

-Electronics and Hydraulics training (a crash course background)

-Fall Protection Test (go out to the Wind Farm, put on your safety harness and climb one of those 300 ft suckers)

-Written Exam

-Business Portion (resume writing and interview skills)

Over the next couple weeks I am going to be highlighting some of our conversations we had and sharing pertinent fall safety information.

Technorati Tags: fall protection, fall safety, wind energy

Posted in Fall Protection Articles, Safety Articles by Sassy Safety Glasses Queen. The Sassy Safety Glasses Queen is our resident safety glasses expert. She specializes in the news, trends, and fashions of the Safety Glasses industry while dabbling in the world of fall protection.

(No Ratings Yet)

Here is another disaster fact from OSHA.  You may remember my first post about this neat feature, but if not you can check it out here.  Anyway, here is another sample accident and what you can do to prevent it.  Sometimes it’s just a good idea to hear all of the things that have happened so you know they can possibly happen.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCIDENT
Employee was working on a roof without any fall protection method employed. He fell 15 feet 7 inches head first and struck the asphalt below. He and another employee were moving 20 foot sections of angle iron away from the edge of the roof when he appeared to lose consciousness and fell over the edge.

ACCIDENT PREVENTION RECOMMENDATIONS
Implement a fall protection plan and discuss the different methods available to prevent an accident from occuring. Methods available are as follows: Guardrail systems or body harness and lanyards attached to the appropriate anchorage points.

Technorati Tags: anchor points, fall protection, harnesses

Posted in Fall Protection Articles by Safety Frank. Safety Frank is our resident all around safety guy. He specializes in making safety easier to understand though humor, video, and a general irreverence for a very stuffy industry.

(No Ratings Yet)

I bet some of you were expecting a big huge list on this post.  Well, you’re not going to get one.  That is unless you want me to list off the 206 bones in the human body.

Yeah, that would be a pretty boring list, but you get the point.  Fall protection may be a pain in the ass sometimes, but breaking a bone hurts like a bitch.  So take this quick and simple reminder to stay healthy this year.

No one wants to break their coccyx, sphenoid, or vomer (those would be bones).

Technorati Tags: fall protection, reasons for fall protection, safety

Posted in Fall Protection Articles by Safety Frank. Safety Frank is our resident all around safety guy. He specializes in making safety easier to understand though humor, video, and a general irreverence for a very stuffy industry.

(No Ratings Yet)

There are several variants of fall protection lanyards in the world of fall protection, so let’s take a look at them so you can gain a better understanding of what you’re looking for.

Rope Lanyard: Offers some elastic properties for all arrest; used for restraint purpose.

Web Lanyard: Ideal for restraint purposes where fall hazards are less than 2 feet.

Cable Positioning Lanyards: Designed for corrosive or excess heat environments and must be used in conjunction with shock absorbing devices.

Shock Absorbers: When used, the fall arresting force will be greatly reduced if a fall occurs.

There you have it, go forth and discover the options available at Snug Harness.

Technorati Tags: fall protection, lanyards, web lantards

Posted in Fall Protection Articles by Safety Frank. Safety Frank is our resident all around safety guy. He specializes in making safety easier to understand though humor, video, and a general irreverence for a very stuffy industry.

(No Ratings Yet)

OSHA offers a section on their website that provides what they call Disaster Facts.  These brief reports describe an accident with all of the stats and recommendations on how to prevent this type of accident from occurring on your job site.  I thought this one was extremely relevant…

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCIDENT
The three workers arrived at the work site around 10:00 am. The workers then accessed the roof by means of a secured ladder to take up tar paper and prepare for the roofing job. They failed to install slide guards or use any other form of fall protection. The victim went onto the roof (6/12 pitch, and 17’ 7” from ground to eave) pulling his air hose and laying it out on the roof for his nail gun. During this process the victim lost his balance and fell onto the concrete patio below. The victim was transported via life flight to the local hospital and then was transported via life flight to a larger regional hospital where he later died from injuries sustained in the fall.

ACCIDENT PREVENTION RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Protect all employees who are engaged in residential style construction and working at elevation, by a guardrail system, personal fall arrest system, safety net system or slide guard system.
2. Ensure employees and subcontractors are properly trained on the use and operation of the previously mentioned systems, and are aware of hazardous conditions on the work site
3. Make provisions prior to the commencement of the job to provide prompt medical attention in the event of an injury. Workers had no procedures and no method to contact emergency response personnel. It took 45 minutes from the time of the fall to emergency personnel arrived on the scene.
4. When no infirmary, clinic, hospital or physician is reasonably accessible in terms of time and distance, the employer shall ensure that an employee is trained in First-Aid and CPR to administer emergency attention in the event of an accident.

Technorati Tags: construction accident, fall protection, ladder safety

Posted in Fall Protection Articles by Safety Frank. Safety Frank is our resident all around safety guy. He specializes in making safety easier to understand though humor, video, and a general irreverence for a very stuffy industry.

(No Ratings Yet)

Some of you out there may not know that fall protection restraints and harnesses come in 4 different types of classes.  Now, each class has its own function and use.  So what better time to go over some of these differences.

Class 1: Body belts (single or double D-ring) are designed to restrain a person in a hazardous work position and to reduce the possibility of falls. They should not be used when fall potential exists; positioning only.

Class 2: Chest harnesses are used when there are only limited fall hazards (no vertical free fall hazard), or for retrieving persons such as removal of persons from a tank or a bin.

Class 3: Full body harnesses are designed to arrest the most severe free falls.

Class 4: Suspension belts are independent work supports used to suspend a worker, such as boatswain’s chairs or raising or lowering harnesses.

Technorati Tags: fall hazards, fall protecion classes, fall protection, harnesses

Posted in Fall Protection Articles by Safety Frank. Safety Frank is our resident all around safety guy. He specializes in making safety easier to understand though humor, video, and a general irreverence for a very stuffy industry.

(No Ratings Yet)