Fall Protection Issuing Department: Town Manager’S Safety Office Effective Date: July 1, 2014 Approved: Gilbert Davidson, Town Manager Type of Action: New
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SAFETY DIRECTIVE Title: Fall Protection Issuing Department: Town Manager’s Safety Office Effective Date: July 1, 2014 Approved: Gilbert Davidson, Town Manager Type of Action: New 1.0 PURPOSE To outline procedures to ensure that Town of Marana employees are provided with proper methods to eliminate or minimize injuries resulting from falls. This program will assist in defining workplaces, operations, conditions, and circumstances for which fall protection shall be provided per OSHA Standards. The policies and procedures contained in this section are intended to assist in identifying and complying with OSHA Safety Standards. In all cases where there is a difference between specific OSHA standards and the Fall Protection policies set forth in this chapter, the stricter of the two shall apply. 2.0 DEPARTMENTS AFFECTED This Administrative Directive shall apply to all Town of Marana departments and employees. 3.0 REFERENCES 3.1 OSHA Standards Related to Fall Protection 3.1.1 Construction Industry Standards 3.1.2 29 CFR 1926.106 -- Working Over or Near Water 3.1.3 29 CFR 1926.451 -- thru 453 (Subpart L) -- Scaffolding 3.1.4 29 CFR 1926.550 -- thru 556 (Subpart N) Cranes, Derricks, Hoists, Elevators and Conveyors 3.1.5 29 CFR 1926.500 -- thru 503 (Subpart M) -- Fall Protection 3.1.6 29 CFR 1926.650 -- thru 652 (Subpart P) -- Excavations 3.1.7 29 CFR 1926.753 (Subpart R) -- Steel Erection, Safety Nets SAFETY DIRECTIVE: FALL PROTECTION 1 3.1.8 29 CFR 1926.800 -- Underground Construction 3.1.9 29 CFR 1926.850 -- thru 859 (Subpart T)--Demolition 3.1.10 29 CFR 1926.959 (Subpart V) -- Lineman’s body belts, safety straps, and lanyards. 3.1.11 29 CFR 1926.1050 -- thru 1060 (Subpart X) -- Stairways and ladders 3.2 General Industry Standards 3.2.1 29 CFR 1910.21 -- thru 32 (Subpart D) Walking and Working Surfaces 3.2.2 29 CFR 1910.66 -- thru 68 (Subpart F) Powered Platforms, Man - lifts, and Vehicle- Mounted Work Platforms. 3.2.3 29 CFR 1910.146 -- Permit-required confined spaces 3.3 Non-OSHA Considerations 3.3.1 Part VI of Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) 4.0 DEFINITIONS 4.1 Anchorage: A secure point of attachment for lifelines, lanyards or deceleration devices. 4.2 Buckle: A ny device for holding the body belt (Positioning Device) or body harness closed around the employee’s body. 4.3 Competent Person : O ne who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous or dangerous to employees; also one who has the authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them. 4.4 Connector: A device which is used to couple (connect) parts of the personal fall arrest system and positioning device systems together. It may be an independent component of the system, such as a self-locking, self-closing rated carabineer, or it may be an integral part of the system , such as a buckle or D-ring sewn into a Positioning Device or Body Harness or a snap hook spliced or sewn into a lanyard or self-retracting device. 4.5 Controlled Access Zone (CAZ): A n area in which certain work (e.g., overhand bricklaying) may take place without the use of guardrail systems, personal fall arrest systems, or safety net systems and access to the zone is controlled. 4.6 Dangerous equipment: E quipment such as open tanks, degreasing units, machinery, electrical equipment, water wells, reservoirs, and other units which, as a result of form or function, may be hazardous to employees who fall onto or into such equipment. 4.7 Deceleration Device: A ny mechanism, such as a rope grab, rip stitch lanyard, specially woven lanyard, tearing or deforming lanyard, automatic self-retracting lanyard or lifeline, which serves to dissipate a substantial amount of energy during a fall, or otherwise limit the energy imposed on an employee during a fall. 4.8 Deceleration Distance: T he additional vertical distance a falling employee travels, excluding lifeline elongation and free fall distance, before stopping, from the point at which the deceleration device begins to operate. It is measured as the distance between the location of an employee's body belt or body harness attachment point at the moment SAFETY DIRECTIVE: FALL PROTECTION 2 of activation (at the onset of fall arrest forces) of the deceleration device during a fall, and the location of that attachment point after the employee comes to a full stop. 4.9 Engineering Controls: These controls include physical changes, such as a permanent working platform with guardrails, for a specific work function. 4.10 Fall Protection: Any device, permanent structure, or personal fall arrest system that is designed to prevent an employee from falling. 4.11 Full Body Harness: A manufactured device secured about the employee in a manner that will distribute the fall arrest forces over at least the thighs, pelvis, waist, chest and shoulders with a means for attaching it to other components of a personal fall arrest system. 4.12 Guard Rail System: A barrier erected to prevent employees from falling to lower levels. 4.13 Hole: A gap or void 2 inches (5.1 cm) or more in its least dimension, in a floor, roof, or other walking/working surface. 4.14 Lanyard: A flexible line of rope, wire rope, or strap which generally has a connector at each end for connecting the body belt or body harness to a deceleration device, lifeline, or anchorage. 4.15 Leading edge: T he edge of a floor, roof, or formwork for a floor or other walking/working surface (such as the deck) which changes location as additional floor, roof, decking, or formwork sections are placed, formed, or constructed. A leading edge is considered to be an "unprotected side and edge" during periods when it is not actively and continuously under construction. 4.16 Lifeline: A component consisting of a flexible line for connection to an anchorage at one end to hang vertically (vertical lifeline), or for connection to anchorages at both ends to stretch horizontally (horizontal lifeline), and which serves as a means for connecting other components of a personal fall arrest system to the anchorage. 4.17 Low-slope Roof: A roof having a slope less than or equal to 4 in 12 (vertical to horizontal). 4.18 Mechanical Equipment: All motor or human propelled, wheeled equipment, except for wheelbarrows and mop carts. 4.19 Opening: A gap or void 30 inches (76 cm) or more high and 18 inches (48 cm) or more wide, in a wall or partition, through which employees can fall to a lower level. 4.20 Personal Fall Arrest System: A system used to arrest an employee in a fall from a working level. It consists of an anchorage, connectors, a body belt or body harness and may include a lanyard, deceleration device, lifeline, or suitable combinations of these. As of January 1, 1998, the use of a body belt for fall arrest is prohibited. 4.21 Positioning Device System: A body belt or harness system rigged to allow an employee to be supported on an elevated vertical surface, such as a wall or ladder, and climb or work with both hands free while leaning, or when working on a horizontal surface, rigged as to restrict the employee from approaching the leading edge. In either case, the Positioning Device shall be rigged to prevent an employee fall that is greater than two feet (2’). SAFETY DIRECTIVE: FALL PROTECTION 3 4.22 Platform: A working space for persons elevated above the surrounding floor or ground, such as a balcony or platform, for the operation of machinery and equipment. 4.23 Roof: The exterior surface on the top of a building. This does not include floors which, because a building has not been completely built, temporarily become the top surface of a building. 4.24 Rope Grab: A deceleration device which travels on a lifeline and automatically, by friction, engages the lifeline and locks so as to arrest the fall of an employee. A rope grab usually employs the principle of inertial locking, cam/level locking, or both. 4.25 Runway: A passageway for persons elevated above the surrounding floor or ground level, such as a foot walk along shafting or a walkway between buildings. 4.26 Safety-monitoring System: A safety system in which a competent person is responsible for recognizing and warning employees of fall hazards. 4.27 Self-retracting Lifeline/Lanyard: A deceleration device containing a drum-wound line which can be slowly extracted from, or retracted onto, the drum under slight tension during normal employee movement, and which, after onset of a fall, automatically locks the drum and arrests the fall. 4.28 Skylight: Fitted within or on top of a roof, normally constructed of framed members covered with a clear or white opaque plastic dome. 4.29 Snap hook: A connector comprised of a hook-shaped member with a normally closed keeper, or similar arrangement, which may be opened to permit the hook to receive an object and, when released, automatically closes to retain the object. Snap hooks are generally one of two types: 4.29.1 The locking type with a self-closing, self-locking keeper which remains closed and locked until unlocked and pressed open for connection or disconnection; or 4.29.2 The non-locking type with a self-closing keeper which remains closed until pressed open for connection or disconnection. As of January 1, 1998, the use of a non- locking snap hook as part of personal fall arrest systems and positioning device systems is prohibited.