Safety Toolbox Talk on Personal Fall Arrester System (PFAS)
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Toolbox Talk on Personal Fall Arrestor System (PFAS) |
Safety Toolbox Talk on Personal Fall Arrester System (PFAS)
Introduction
A Personal fall arrestor / protection system is
required when working at height levels with an unprotected side or edge. When
it is not possible to provide a safe working platform, i.e. secured full deck
board with guardrails including toe guards and means of safe access and there
is risk of fall from height, then use of personal fall arrester or personal
fall protection equipment is mandatory.
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In addition, personal fall protection equipment
must be worn by people who work on mobile working platforms such as man basket,
cradle, and cherry pickers, etc.
Appropriate connectors assembly along with full body harness required
for each work shall be determined based on the level of exposure, nature of
work, type of roof/surface/platform, etc. and shall be listed in the permit to
work.
Generally, a personal fall arrester system consists of anchors
(connector), full body harness and lanyard with shock absorber.
Regulations – Personal fall arrester system
OSHA 29 CFR 1926.502 gives guidelines on Fall protection
systems criteria and practices.
Body belts are not acceptable as part of personal fall arrest
system according to OSHA 29 CFR 1926.502(b) because they can cause serious
injury during fall.
When workers are exposed to fall of 6 feet or more to a lower
level, they must wear personal fall arrester. Personal fall arrester system
must be designed and setup according to OSHA 29 CFR 1926.502 (d)(16)(iii).
Complete personal fall arrester system must comply OSHA 29 CFR
1926.502 (d) (15) requirements and the anchorage with anchorage connectors of
fall arrester system must be capable to withstand the load of 5000 pounds per
worker.
Personal fall arrester system equipment must be certified by a
competent person at intervals of every six months.
Hazards – personal fall arrester system (PFAS)
Here are the main hazards associated
with personal fall arrester system
Defective PFAS equipment: Defective
equipment can be prone to fail and may lead to serious injury. Damaged,
uncertified, inadequate setup of fall arrester
system can create hazards.
Unsafe practices: Failure to anchor the
personal fall arrest device while moving from one point to another can cause
serious injury. Even when worker anchors the fall arrester wrongly at lower
level may be liable to sustain injury due to jerk of falling force.
Incompetence: Incompetent worker are
vulnerable to violate the safety rule and control measures.
Crossing the safe endurance time: Waist belts are designed to be used as restraints
only. They have an average of two minutes of endurance. Chest harnesses are
designed for rescue and restraint and have an average of six minutes of
endurance. Sub-pelvic full body harnesses average ten minutes of endurance.
Risk – Personal fall arrester system (PFAS)
Suspension trauma: Even
after an individual is caught from a fall by a fall arrest system, they aren’t
out of danger. Within 15 to 20 minutes, suspension from a harness, causes blood
to pool in the legs, eventually making the suspended individual pass out. The
non-circulating blood in the legs then loses oxygen and becomes toxic, a
dangerous condition known as suspension trauma, also known as harness hang
syndrome (HHS), or orthostatic intolerance.
Since the performance and practice of the personal fall arrest
system depend on human competence and behavior, there is a risk of
non-compliance, which can lead to serious injury.
Safe work practices and controls
1. Plan and organize the work in advance through the work permit
system and the Job Safety Analysis to assess the requirement of personal fall
protection system.
2. Make sure, all personal protective equipment used for
working must be certified and inspected before use.
3. Workers must be trained in the use of personal fall arrester
equipment and must work under the constant supervision of a competent person.
4. Workers with health problems such as heart disease, high
blood pressure, psychosis, epilepsy, or one of these diseases should be
considered unfit.
5. It is very important to calculate the proper length of
lanyard, anchorage position and the distance to the lower level i.e. fall clearance
distance to prevent contact with lower surface in the event of fall.
6. The pendulum effect must be predicted for the fallen worker
so that it cannot be hit on the nearby structure. There anchor point must be
above the work area.
7. The vertical distance between the worker and lower level is
called as total fall distance and it is determined by considering below points
a) Free fall distance
– worker falls before activation of PFAS. This distance must be less than 1.8
meters.
b) Deceleration distance
– lanyard length in stretched condition to arrest the fall. This length/
distance should not be more than 1 meter.
c) D-Ring shift – to
support the full weight of fallen worker with tools, D-ring shifts and
stretches the harness. This distance is generally considered as 1 foot.
d) Back D-ring height
– It is the length/ distance between D-ring and the sole of worker’s footwear.
Generally, it is considered 1.5 meters but may vary person to person as per
their height and must accordingly adjusted.
e) Safety Margin – To
ensure enough clearance between the worker and the lower level after fall, a
additional distance should be considered and this is called as safety margin. Generally,
it is considered 2 feet.
Total Fall clearance distance
is the addition of all above factors.
8. A personal fall arrester system includes an anchorage (where
the lanyard’s snap hook is attached), Full body harness and connector i.e.
lanyard with shock absorber or lifeline. Connector couples the body harness to
the anchorage. Lifeline may be self-retractive type or with deceleration
device.
9. How to wear full body safety
harness properly:
- Before use, inspect your harness for any damaged straps,
buckles, D-ring and lines. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions and
keep in mind that most of the harness are withstanding 140 kg load.
- Hold the harness by D-ring in your right hand and shake it to
allow all straps to hang down. If any strap i.e. chest, thighs or waist are already
buckled then unbuckle them before wearing.
- Slip straps over shoulders and ensure the D-ring of harness
at center i.e. between the worker’s shoulder blades. Lanyard should be attached
to the D-ring.
- Adjust the harness to fit comfortably. Make sure all straps
are fastened and adjusted correctly.
- The leg straps should be adjusted until they are comfortable,
its should not be so tight, to check it put the palm of hand into the straps
across the thighs so that it should be comfortably fitted. There should be a
gap of about one inch between your thighs and straps. Connect waist strap after
leg straps.
- Ensure shock absorber fitted with lanyard
10. Lanyard anchor must be secured with anchorage point which
should be strong enough to withstand the load of worker with safety margin. During
roofing work, do not attach anchors to sheathing, single trusses or guardrails
as these may not designed or strong enough to hold the load of falling workers.
Anchors can be attached to a structural member or truss member.
11. The lifeline can be used to move from one point to another.
A horizontal lifeline can be attached to the overhead structure which helps the
uninterrupted protection while working. Self-retracting lifelines enable
greater horizontal and vertical mobility than traditional 6-foot
shock-absorbing lanyards.
12. Fall protection system can be combined with safety warning
line system or with safety monitoring system.
13. All workers must know about what to do in the event of
emergency i.e. fall. In case of emergency fall,
- ask for help,
- try to regain nearest access to the structure, try to place
your legs on structure to relax your weight on harness.
- Try to pump your legs frequently to activate muscles and
reduce the risk of venous buildup. Support points can be used to relieve
pressure, delay symptoms and support muscle pumping.
- Using Suspension Trauma Straps, which are a pair of straps,
allows you to get up to relax your leg muscles by removing the load and
restoring blood circulation until help arrives. When a worker falls and rests,
he unwinds the straps, hooks them, and presses his weight against the straps.
Toolbox talk interacting Questionnaires
1. What is meant by total fall clearance distance?
2. What to inspect before wearing full body harness with
connectors?
3. Does the full body harness help prevent falls or minimize
the fall distance?
4. What is meant by ‘lifeline’ and when does it require?
5. What is Suspension
Trauma?
6. Why do you require personal fall arrester?
7. What is the frequency of certification for PFPS equipment?
8. What is meant by Self-retracting lifelines?
9. What will you do in case of a fall and hang up on PFPS?
10. How to check the comfort of the body harness?
Summary
The consequences of failure of a Personal Fall Arrest
System (PFAS) can be serious, therefore proper selection, inspection
and training for workers is very important before use. Working at height
without a proper work platform and without guard railings is the most dangerous
job because it presents a high risk of serious injury.
An appropriate personal fall arrest system with
an appropriate risk assessment, work permit, best practice adoption and
competent supervision must be implemented. A record should be kept of the Toolbox
talk on Personal Fall Arrest System.
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