Working safely at heights must be a priority for anyone working where you can fall from one level to another that can cause injury or death.
Recent fatalities and the resulting significant fines and even imprisonment for those who neglected the safety of their employees emphasise the necessity of adequate fall protection systems on your site.
A fall protection system is designed to catch a worker in the unfortunate event of a fall limiting the chances of an injury or death.
The Hierarchy of Control was implemented to give a greater understanding of preferred methods when identifying hazards and how we should deal with them.
As you can see, the Hierarchy places elimination of the hazard as main priority.
When Working at Heights, the main objective is to remove the physical risk from the worker.
If this cannot be obtained, working through the hierarchy utilising each step is vital to reduce the probability of a fall.
Now let us dive into PPE from the above hierarchy of control for working at heights.
PPE or Personal Protective Equipment is the last resort on the hierarchy of control as it exposes the worker to the greatest risk to the hazard.
When implement PPE for Working at Heights, there are two (2) main options:
