WORKING at height is dangerous. Employers should be fully aware that the most effective way of ensuring their employees’ safety is to eliminate the need for people to work at height at all, thereby removing any risk of a fall.
The best solutions actually engineer out the need to work at height, followed by those that isolate the person from the risk through the use of barriers and hand rails.
However, in many cases, neither of these methods of eliminating or isolating the risk is possible.
Where work at height is the only option, the FPMA (Fall Protection Manufacturers’ Association of Australia) recommends that priority is given to try and set up the system using ‘restraint technique’, a work method devised to prevent operators from reaching a position where a fall is possible.
Even in restraint, it is essential that the operator uses the correct equipment, designed specifically to give the maximum protection to operators in the event of a fall.
What is a restraint system?
The restraint system comprises a fall arrest rated safety harness connected by a shock absorbing lanyard to a correctly rated anchor point.
Where the person requires a high degree of movement about the site, the combination of the anchor point, such as a horizontal lifeline system, and the lanyard (which could be a self retracting lifeline or an adjustable lanyard) must restrict that movement so the person can never reach a point where a fall is possible.
However, even in well planned restraint conditions, accidents – which are unplanned and generally unforseen events – can, and do, happen.
It is to protect against these unplanned events that the employer must ensure that the highest possible level of safety equipment has been provided to the operators, along with competency based, certified training.
It should be made clear that the term “Fall Arrest” is a safety rating which applies to safety harnesses and associated equipment – it is NOT a work method.
There are some people in industry who believe the use of fall arrest equipment implies that the person is ‘planning to take a fall’ when it is being used.
Quite to the contrary, the use of fall protection rated equipment while using restraint technique simply offers a higher margin of safety.
ANZ Standards Certification Mark
The Australian/New Zealand Certification Mark indicates equipment that has been formally type and batch tested to ensure it fully meets the Standard.
These marks can vary in appearance, thus presenting a confusing array of symbols, since each certifying authority provides a different mark.
However, the wording for each piece of equipment that has been tested and passed is the same for each: “Certified to AS/ANZ 1891.1”.
Users need to check each label to ensure that the equipment is suitably certified.
Properly used, safety harnesses designed, manufactured and certified as tested to AS/NZS1891.1 (2007) provide the highest level of safety of any safety harness in the world.
The ANZ Standard has set the world’s highest standard in safety harness design, manufacture and testing and, in Australia, no lesser standard is considered to be acceptable.
A harness bearing an ANZ Standard certification mark is differentiated from all other harnesses in three key ways:
* The safety harness is required to be made from webbing that has been manufactured with specific UV resistance characteristics that are not required in any other standard in the world. This reflects the unique conditions in Australia.
* The harness must have a frontal fall arrest rated connection point to provide the highest strength rating for a frontal connection available in the world.
* The safety harness series must have complied with rigorous batch testing requirements as dictated by the Standard.
The Australian Standard for safety harnesses is the only standard in the world that requires ongoing batch testing. Other standards only require once off compliance testing.
Maximising users’ safety
There will always be instances where there is a requirement for people to work at height. In these cases, users need to follow a simple sequence in order to maximise their safety:
1. Use a risk assessment and the hierarchy of control to try and eliminate the risk by engineering out the need to go to height or by isolating the risk through barriers and guard rails.
2. Where this is not possible, establish combinations of work methods and equipment that ensures the operators remain in restraint at all times, using fall arrest rated equipment.
3. Ensure that the highest standard of safety equipment is used; equipment certified as designed, manufactured and tested in line with the world’s highest standard, AS/NZS 1891.1(2007). Nothing else is acceptable.
4. Work method statements should be documented and staff provided with competency based, accredited height safety training.
5. Suitable rescue planning should be undertaken to allow the prompt rescue and recovery of personnel in the event of an accident.
The Fall Protection Manufacturers Association of Australia comprises all leading Australian companies in the design and manufacture of fall protection equipment.
This professional association has strongly supported the tightening of Australian Standards surrounding the selection, use and maintenance of height safety equipment.
*Gordon Cadzow is secretary of FPMA, 02 9875 3240, www.fpma.com.au.