OSHA Care Ch 05 | Working at Heights | Fall Protection and Rescue Fundamentals

The goal of this training is to provide the basic knowledge needed to recognize and avoid hazards associated with working at heights.

This training program will help prepare you to:

• Work at heights safely and in compliance with all required regulations to select, inspect, and use industry-standard personal fall arrest equipment, including a harness and lanyard
• Perform an at heights rescue

Due to the substantial number injuries and deaths from falls across workplaces, employers are now required to provide their workers with fall protection training when these employees are working at heights or exposed to fall hazards. Most of the reported injuries and deaths are due directly to workers not abiding by the fundamentals of fall prevention.

The Working at Heights training program has been implemented to eliminate injuries and deaths from falls, even from heights of no more than two meters.

The objectives of the working at heights program includes:

• Recognizing fall hazards
• Identifying and applying fall protection controls, ranging from guardrails and opening covers to travel restraint and fall arrest

The training requirement is for workers on any projects who use the following methods of fall protection:

• Travel restraint systems
• Fall restricting systems
• Fall arrest systems
• Safety nets
• Work belts or safety belts
• Rescue equipment

Workers must be trained in the safe use of fall protection equipment and the procedures which they must follow to ensure their personal safety while using this equipment.

 

The training must include the procedures to:

• Assemble
• Maintain
• Inspect
• Use
• Disassemble the fall protection system(s) in use
• Workers expected to rescue a worker who has fallen and is suspended by a fall arrest system must be trained in rescue procedures to safely and effectively assist a suspended worker

 

OSHA Standard 1926.503 “Training Requirements”

The employer shall provide a training program for each employee who might be exposed to fall hazards. The program shall enable each employee to recognize the hazards of falling and shall train each employee in the procedures to be followed in order to minimize these hazards.

The employer shall assure that each employee has been trained, as necessary, by a competent person qualified in the following areas:

• The nature of fall hazards in the work area
• The correct procedures for erecting, maintaining, disassembling, and inspecting the fall protection systems to be used
• The use and operation of guardrail systems, personal fall arrest systems, safety net systems, warning line systems, safety monitoring systems, controlled access zones, and other protection to be used
• The role of each employee in the safety monitoring system when this system is used
• The limitations on the use of mechanical equipment during the performance of roofing work on low-sloped roofs
• The correct procedures for the handling and storage of equipment and materials and the erection of overhead protection
• The role of employees in fall protection plans
• The latest training certification shall be maintained