Now a day's people tend to construct higher buildings to cope with the modern environment these has greatly increased the threat of falling for workers working on these high buildings. As a result the U.S occupational safety and health administration (OSHA) has set down rules to minimize this risk. They have made the use of fall protection system necessary. Fall protection system is provided to labours working in construction companies to prevent them from injuries and death caused due to falling while working in air. This system helps the construction company to maintain a minimum standard to protect the workers from injuries.
There are generally three types of Fall Protection Systems one uses nets known as general fall arrest system the other one uses lifelines known as the personal fall arrest system and the third one are guard rails. A personal fall protection system basically contains four major parts the anchor, the body wear the connector and the declaration device. Anchor is the part of the system which is fixed and rest of the parts are attached to. The body wear is the part which holds the worker and the connectors connects the anchorage to the body harness and the declaration device dissipates the force during a fall arrest. Even other products are available that are used in fall arrest but these are chosen according to the specific environment so as to maintain the best combination required for the fall arrest. In general fall protection system nets are placed around areas where workers are working around 30 feet above the ground a typical net should be able to hold around 300 pounds of weight. Guardrails are placed around 3 inch from the working area they should be designed good enough to with stand 200 pounds of weight without falling.
Before the Fall Protection Systems is used they should be thoroughly checked for damages and repairs. They can be best used under the supervision of an expert. The workers must be given regular training regarding the equipments and how to use them. The supervisor should check the load applied to the structure and the fall clearance required each time a new fall arrest is made. He should also perform design calculations to make the best suitable fall arrest system according to the environment. A safe working environment is not only necessary for the worker but also a duty of the organization to make their workers comfortable while working.
