When working at height, it is important to remember the safety measures that you need to keep you safe from possible fall injuries. So, if you are the type of worker who works at height, read the following tips carefully to avoid the risk of falling.
What Measures To Take To Prevent Falling
Determining specific responsibilities for fall prevention management is very important. The workplace should always be safe for every worker although accidents are sometimes impossible to avoid. By implementing the correct safety procedures, injuries can be avoided. To prevent fall injury, always use the safety equipment provided and never take short cuts. Always perform routine checks and tasks.
Certain procedures may vary depending on your job, tasks, site, and duties. Duty holders need to guarantee sufficient information when using equipment and other tools to ensure workers’ safety. The following are the best safety measures to avoid falls in construction sites:
- Identify every potential fall hazard–whether you are in the demolition, construction, maintenance, or plant structure, knowing the possible reasons for falling is essential. When working on unstable and fragile surfaces, be sure to equip yourself with the right tools needed in performing your duties.
- Assess situations and risks in which you may fall – if you at the top of the building or roof, there’s always the possibility of falling. The best thing you can do is to evaluate first the site before climbing up the ladder. If you have determined risks, immediately inform the authority so that they can take proper actions as soon as possible. Some of the factors to be considered are the layout, size, and nature of your workplace. Then you can also check the work type, duration, and extent.
- Implement protective measures and minimize risks–it is always important to consult employees when implementing safety measures in the workplace. Hence, you should be able to understand what is needed to be done and what are the things to be avoided for maximum safety.
- Provide emergency procedures for immediate response to fall incidents–emergency procedures should be placed within prevention devices area in order to immediately respond to any physical fall emergencies. The procedures should allow employees to be rescued in case they fall from working on height. Fall prevention is a crucial process and must be understood by every worker on the site so that they can also assist with injured co-worker.
- Make sure that prevention measures and the entire site have enough maintenances services–it is better to ensure that the plant is specifically designed to provide safety working to all employees. It’s not enough to give workers proper tools but also the knowledge during emergency situations.
- Regularly update safety measures as well as risk assessments in the workplace as per requirements–personnel, tasks, equipment, and conditions may change from various sites but protective measures should always be prioritized.
How to Prevent Tools from Falling
It’s an obvious thing that you are likely to be using tools whilst working at height. You should be familiar with how to operate them and the precautions to take so that if you were to drop, say, a drill, it’s not going to injure someone walking below you on the chance you drop it from an access platform. This can be as simple as tying the tool to your belt with some string but a much better way of doing this is to use a tool lanyard. These are designed to absorb a sudden shock so that you are not pulled over by the downward momentum of some string or rope being pulled taut.
Always safely attach tools in your tool lanyard or belt to quickly get them when you have to use these workplace paraphernalia. You can also put them in a safe spot within the scaffolding so that you will no longer need to climb down and retrieve the necessary gear. Bear in mind that gathering all the materials you need at heights will help you save effort and time during work time.
What Happens If You Do Fall
Prevention is the best cure (think safety barriers), however, there are instances where an accident happens and a fall does occur. Using the correct equipment, a fall can be arrested. Equipment such as lanyards, harnesses and safety lines are perfect for this. However, you still need to identify which equipment to use when you need to go up a certain height and accomplish your given task. For several meters, you may use scaffolding for temporary step or elevating device. This platform will make work easier to manage in a timely fashion.
For higher lifts, you will need a forklift along with a mounting cage and guard railing. Guard rails can be made of cable, steel, pipe, or wood, make sure to use what’s necessary. A safety mesh will support your balance while you’re in the building unit. Using a certain positioning system is also important such as a travel restraint or engineering cable access system. The safety net is for catching platform with safety harness to balance fall.
At work, there is a great possibility to fall from heights and get serious injury. In fact, there are people who have already been killed due to unavailable safety measures provided in the work area. Construction work is a dangerous job especially when you’re required to climb up a certain feet that are above the normal height. So, be sure to get proper protection along with necessary tools to keep you safe and sound.
When you fall, the level of injury will depend on the height of the building you’re in. The higher the more injury you will get or worse, you’ll get killed. With strict guidelines in fall prevention management, employees are guaranteed to be safe no matter where they are. The thing is, you will have to undergo serious training to acquire basic knowledge when it comes to working at heights.
Do not go anywhere unarmed. Always make sure that you have the required equipment to perform any construction work. Your safety is more important than salary so stay vigilant while at work. If you want to know more about the importance of proper safety procedures when working at height, please feel free to contact us and we’ll provide you with other important details. Thanks for visiting and we hope to help you more!
