height and harnesses

[chappy]

is there a certain height at which a harness should be used from that height and above?? does it differ when using different access equipment...ladder / tower/ tallescope?

 

 

cheers s :wacko:

[Simon Lewis]

A few things...

 

Firstly, a fall arrest harness is at the bottom of the Work at Height safety hierarchy:

 

- avoid work at height where possible

- use work equipment or other measures to prevent falls if you cannot avoid working at height

- where you cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use work equipment or other measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall should one

occur.

 

Secondly, if you have to wear a harness, it presupposes that there is something suitable to attach the fall arrest device to. Your examples do not lend themselves to harness use, in fact, it's very likely they would make a fall worse (e.g. tying a harness to an access tower and falling off the edge is likely to a) break the tower tubing and/or b) bring the tower down on your head.

 

Thirdly, the height of the person, the length of the lanyard and the length of the deployed fall arrest system can mean that falling from anything below 4 or 5 m simply breaks your legs - or worse.

 

Lastly, the Work at Height regs require you to have a rescue plan in place should you have a fall in a harness.

 

The answer is a) do you have to do the job at height? b) can you make it such that you cannot fall? then c) if you have to use a harness, you need to be high enough up for the system to deploy safely.

[iamchristuffin]

SNIP SNIP

The answer is a) do you have to do the job at height? b) can you make it such that you cannot fall? then c) if you have to use a harness, you need to be high enough up for the system to deploy safely.

 

I think that that just gets back to the OP's question - what IS high enough?

 

Are you saying that the W@H regs say you could be working at 100m high without a harness if there was no way they could fall?

[Jivemaster]

There is no legally defined working height requiring use of harness based systems.

 

There is a requirement to work safely at any height and as Simon Lewis says, follow the hazard and risk reduction strategies--

to avoid working at height,

to prevent falls,

to use suitable personal and/or collective protective equipment to protect against the effect of falls.

 

In every case some skill is needed to assess and minimise the risk and hazard, and to select and use PPE acording to the manufacturers specification and guidance.

 

 

The once accepted 2 metre rule is no more. You must consider preventing harm from work at hight from any height.

 

Harnesses are only one part of the safety system,

[Pete McCrea]

Are you saying that the W@H regs say you could be working at 100m high without a harness if there was no way they could fall?

 

If they are on a Working Platform with the appropriate edge guards etc, and it had been risk assesed to within suitable tolerences then yes. You could argue that you wouldn't need a harness in a cherry picker at 100m if it provides a suitable working platfrom.

[Andrew C]

You could argue that you wouldn't need a harness in a cherry picker at 100m if it provides a suitable working platform.

Contentiously, you may need work restraint to stop you climbing onto a rung of the basket to gain that extra 1/2 metre.

[Simon Lewis]

Contentiously, you may need work restraint to stop you climbing onto a rung of the basket to gain that extra 1/2 metre.

The industry advice for boom type cherry pickers is that a full body harness with short lanyard should be worn to prevent "boom bounce" ejecting the user from the basket. See here...

 

It should also help discourage those who stand on the guard rail ;-)

 

 

I think that that just gets back to the OP's question - what IS high enough?

 

let's see.... (hypothetically..)

 

Rigger A is 1.2m tall, uses a 85cm lanyard and his fall arrest system deploys in 1.4m

 

Rigger B is 2m tall, uses a 1.5m lanyard and his fall arrest system deploys in 2m.

 

Would you like to specify a "standard" minimum height to wear a harness and fall arrest system?

 

Are you saying that the W@H regs say you could be working at 100m high without a harness if there was no way they could fall?

 

I'm not, the WaH regulations do though. If the fall can be prevented, then fall arrest isn't required.

 

Do bear in mind that fall arrest is "effectively" an admission of failure. Falling in a harness isn't a pleasant fairground ride - it can hurt, and there's always the chance that you will hit something on the way down, or something falls on you.

Harness hang pathology (look it up) means that dangling in a harness - especially if a rescue plan isn't quickly deployed - is life threatening. This is why fall arrest is bottom of the list in the safety hierarchy.

[Tomo]

I'm not, the WaH regulations do though. If the fall can be prevented, then fall arrest isn't required.

To give an extreme example:

If a worker is fitting a carpet on the top floor of a skyscraper, with walls and closed windows all around preventing them from being able to fall out of the building, would you require them to wear a restraint harness or fall arrest system?

 

Of course not!

 

Equally, if suitable protection (handrails, kickboards, very stable work platform etc) exists to make it extremely unlikely that they can fall, then fall arrest is probably not required. A restraint harness may be indicated instead, or maybe no fall-prevention PPE is required.

 

However, you can only decide if this is the case by doing a risk assessment of the job in hand.

 

Remember that with the current H&S regulations, Risk Assessment is king.