Working at Height Control Measures

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Working at Height Control Measures

What Are Control Measures?

A control measure is any course of action taken with the intent of eliminating the risk of hazards, and reducing workers’ exposure to them.

The most effective control measure is one that completely eliminates the risk of a hazard. A good example would be replacing a work at height task with another task that is performed at ground level. This can be possible by using extendable tools. This way, window cleaners would be able to reach windows in higher levels, while avoiding additional safety risks.

There are instances when workers cannot avoid working at height, and the job cannot be completed from the ground or remotely. If this is the case, then the control measures must include setting the time that workers spend doing their task from height. Employers must also provide workers with appropriate training for the job, and make sure that they are equipped with PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) that are appropriate for their assigned tasks. Safety features like safety nets must also be set up.

The right solution will depend on the workers involved, the project, and other prevailing circumstances. An effective control measure today may no longer be applicable tomorrow. It may change over time. Thus, it is imperative that you review your risk assessments on a regular and ongoing basis.

Choosing the Appropriate Equipment for the Job

The rule of thumb is to pick passive and collective safety measure forms over personal forms like PPE or measures that are contingent on workers’ work behavior.

For instance, safety railings do not require any action from employees, except refraining from climbing over them. Safety nets will work, and it doesn’t matter whether or not an individual falling into the net is observing a set protocol.

When performing work tasks at height, it’s recommended the safety planner refer to the Hierarchy of Fall Protection. This hierarchy acts as an easy reference for what control measures look like in a fall protection setting, specifically.

There was a reported case of a worker who was cleaning extraction fans in a certain poultry facility. He fell from a height of 3 meters – from a roof that was unguarded. The worker sustained permanent spinal injuries. A safety harness or roof edge protection would have prevented the unfortunate incident or the worker might have sustained less severe injuries. There’s a lot of other safety measures that could have resulted to a better outcome if only they were observed.

When trying to prevent accidents, it is crucial to pick the right equipment for jobs at height. It is vital to have trained and competent personnel inspect all access equipment before and after every use.

When choosing access equipment, keep the following points in mind:

  • What is the task’s risk level? The answer may determine the equipment type to choose.
  • How much time does the worker need to complete the job? Tasks with a longer duration may necessitate different equipment. In general, employees should not be made to stay on a ladder longer than 30 minutes.

Reviewing Your Existing Control Measures

All working at height risk assessments must be reviewed on a regular basis. Changes must be made, whenever circumstances dictate. These include changes in the staff.

The risks that working at height poses are unique and different from other safety and health hazards. Each project you undertake will most likely pose a different set of risks. This is because each site is unique, and the issues you need to consider vary.

To illustrate, a routine maintenance job on a tall building, a roof repair job, and a barn renovation will present varying hazards. Thus, each job will require a different set of control measures.

A risk assessment is often more effective if feedback from the workers concerned are considered. Typically, a worker will raise practical inputs that employers may fail to consider. An employee may come up with sound recommendations that will help in formulating effective control measures.

Policies that are finalized with the collaboration of workers will be observed more compared to ones that are being imposed unilaterally or without consultation.

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What Are the Most Common Injuries from Falling Tools?

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Injuries from falling objects are one of the most common hazards encountered in construction. They are also one of the easiest to avoid. Falling objects can range from small tools to larger items such as steel beams. Unfortunately, most contractors tend to belittle the dangers caused by falling objects, believing that a small object could not cause serious injury.

Injuries caused by falling objects range from relatively minor ones such as bruises and lacerations to more severe injuries such as concussions, back and neck injuries, and broken bones. At worse, these incidents can result in paralysis, traumatic brain injuries, permanent disabilities, and death.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 50,000 “struck by falling object” incidents recorded by OSHA every year. This means that there is approximately one injury from this cause every ten minutes. And there are probably many more incidents that go unreported.

One example of a fatality caused by falling objects involves the death of 58-year-old Gary Anderson in New Jersey. Anderson was delivering plasterboard to the site of a luxury high rise under construction when a tape measure struck him.

The tape measure had slipped from the belt of a worker working 50 stories above Anderson. It bounced off a piece of equipment ten feet above the ground before hitting him and knocking him unconscious. He suffered a cardiac arrest and later expired in a hospital.

While these incidents are fortunately rare, they serve to highlight how potentially dangerous falling objects at construction sites can be. They can also be easily prevented with some simple precautions being taken.

Prevent injuries from falling objects

There is a number of basic measures that workplaces can implement to prevent injuries from falling objects. These include:

Tethers and tool lanyards. These will ensure that tools are securely attached to a worker’s tool belt or harness and prevent them from falling. Workers should always secure their tools while they are at the worksite.

Barricades. These should be set up on the perimeter of exclusion zones to prevent workers from entering. If barricades are not feasible, then overhead protective structures should be used. 

Warning signs should also be placed around these areas. When workers see people wandering near these sites, they should also be instructed to give them verbal warnings.

Grating covers. Even placing a piece of non-slip plywood to cover an open grating can prevent tools from falling through it.

Toeboards. These are installed on guardrails and prevent dropped tools from falling to the level underneath. In addition, if you pile materials beside guardrails that are higher than 3.5-inches, place screening or plywood panels on the guardrails to prevent small debris from falling through them.

Carts with sides. These will help ensure that what is placed on them will not accidentally fall off. If you have to place a load on a cart that extends over its side, make sure to tie it down or otherwise secure it.

In addition, these best practices can be implemented in the workplace to avoid falling object accidents.

When hoisting, make sure that the operator does not swing, lower or lift over someone’s head. If the operator’s view is blocked, a spotter should assist him in avoiding accidents.

Tools and other equipment and materials should be kept away from the edges of elevated surfaces. Materials should always be stacked on a stable, flat surface.

Materials and equipment should be kept at least six feet away from the edge to avoid tipping. These should also be arranged so that they don’t slide or roll in the direction of an opening.

When working at a height where there is strong wind, always tie down or otherwise secure materials and equipment.

When removing something from a secured pile, make sure to re-secure the pile afterward.   

Workers should maintain the cleanliness of their work areas. After a tool is used, it should be put away and not left lying around. Debris and other messes should be promptly cleaned up after work.

Anyone who is at a site where there is a risk of falling objects should wear hard hats and other protective equipment. If there are visitors, they should be accompanied by employees who will escort them and prevent them from entering potentially hazardous areas.

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Why It is Important to Secure Your Tools When Working at Heights

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Many workers – and the contractors who employ them – seem to take for granted the importance of ensuring that tools and equipment are securely fastened when they are working at height. After all, how much damage could a tool do when it falls? But, depending on the height from which it falls, even a small object can be deadly.

For instance, a 220g bolt has an impact force of 49kg (similar to being hit by a washing machine) when dropped 23m. A hammer weighing 2kg can have an impact force of 117kg (equivalent to a baby elephant) when dropped just 6m.

The above computations assume that the object is dropped straight down. But if the object is deflected by something in its path, i.e., a girder or a piece of equipment, it becomes a projectile. This not only means that the impact force may be intensified, but the object can travel much further away.

Such incidents are fortunately rare, which is probably one of the reasons why more importance is not given to the prevention of falling objects. However, close calls happen more often than is perhaps commonly believed. 

According to data from OSHA, there are some 50,000 incidents reported of “struck by falling objects” annually. This breaks down to approximately one event every ten minutes. In addition to these, there are probably many more falling object incidents that are not reported, probably because no one was harmed or any resulting injuries were minor. 

Unfortunately, this lack of awareness means that contractors and workers usually rely more on remedial measures such as debris nets to catch falling objects. But these measures are not foolproof, and it is always better to prevent objects from falling in the first place.

Another common issue cited by most workers as to why they don’t tie off their tools is that they don’t have tethering features. But the truth is that there is a wide range of tool tethering products available that will ensure that tools can be securely attached to workers or structures while still being easy to remove when the tool is needed.

Creating a Dropped Object Prevention Program

The first step in creating a prevention program involves assessing the risks present in the workspace. The questions that need to be answered include:

  • What are the potentially unsafe objects (i.e., tools, debris) that can fall?
  • Who are at risk (workers, delivery personnel, guests)?
  • What areas of the job site are at risk for dropped objects?

Answering these questions will require you to spend time observing at-height work areas so you can identify actual and potential safety hazards. Note that the causes of falling objects can be divided into two categories:

Worker-caused

Falling objects can be caused by worker carelessness, being disorganized or otherwise not following proper housekeeping procedures and colliding and tripping while at the worksite.

Elements

Causes of falling objects include weather conditions on the site, vibrations and corrosion, and other hazardous worksite conditions. 

Once you’re done, you can start developing prevention solutions. These are also divided into categories: 

Administrative controls

Changing worker behavior through training and new procedures. For instance, you can talk to workers about the importance of being organized while on the worksite (i.e., not leaving tools and construction debris lying around, putting tools away after use and ensuring that cords are appropriately routed so that they do not pose a tripping hazard).

Engineering controls

These involve putting procedures in place to prevent dropped objects. They are also divided into three categories:

  • Passive controls that do not require human intervention to work. These include toeboards, safety netting, and handrails.
  • Active controls that require workers actively implement them. These include the use of drop containment devices such as lanyards and pouches, which secure tools and equipment to ensure they don’t fall. 
  • Personal Protective Equipment that is designed to mitigate the impact of dropped objects on workers. These should be used to supplement a prevention plan rather than being the primary way to protect against dropped objects.
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The Physics behind the Real Danger of Falling Tools

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Based on reports by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one person gets injured by a falling object in their workplace every ten minutes. That’s about 50 thousand reported cases every year.

These incidents are most common in workplaces where work at height is done. In work at height areas, the most common objects that fall and cause injuries are handheld tools and material debris.

The range of damage or injury can vary from a slight bump to a crack in the skull. The possible victim’s safety depends on the object’s mass, the height of the fall, and the acceleration due to gravity. These physical elements determine the impact force that can cause damage.

How? The following section will explain.

The Physics of Falling Objects

Although keeping a hard hat on at all times may keep you generally safe from a direct hit, not all falling objects have the same impact force. Thus, you can still incur concussions and contusions in spite of the hard hat. But how exactly can falling objects cause such damage from a certain height?

According to physics, when an object at rest suddenly falls, the force of gravity converts its potential energy to kinetic energy—energy in motion. Gravitational pull causes the object to accelerate and creates force. This force is what generates impact when the object hits or collides with something after falling.

To calculate an object’s impact force when it falls from a certain height, you first need to calculate how much kinetic energy the object had before the point of impact. You can do that using the following equation:

E = mgh

E stands for energy, m for object’s mass, g for acceleration due to gravity (constant is 9.81 m/s-2), and h for the falling height.

To incorporate this equation into solving the average impact force of the falling object, you need to take into account the distance traveled by the object.

The distance traveled does not automatically equate to the falling height. This is because the falling height is the distance of the point of fall from the ground, whereas distance traveled is the distance the object traveled when it hits the ground before stopping completely.

To get the average impact force (in Newtons), you’ll need this equation:

Average impact force = mgh / d

Or

Average impact force = E / d

E or mgh stands for the change in kinetic energy and d is for distance traveled by the falling object.

For this calculation, the height and distance should be in meters, and the weight should be in kilograms.

Now, for example, to calculate the impact force of a 3-kilogram wrench that falls from a 3-meter scaffold and embeds itself 5 cm deep into the ground, you’ll apply the formula as:

Average impact force = mgh / d

Average impact force = (3 kg * 9.81 m/s-2 * 3 m) / 0.05 m

Average impact force = 88.29 / 0.05 m

Average impact force = 1765.8 or 1766 Newtons

This result means that it takes a force of 1766 Newtons for a 3-kilogram wrench to penetrate the ground 5 cm deep after falling from a height of 3 meters. Without head protection, this amount of force is enough to knock someone unconscious and cause a skull fracture. In some studies, it has been proven that a force of 2300 Newtons is enough to crush a skull in one hit.

Preparing for and Preventing Damage from Falling Tools

Once you get how the formula works, you can calculate the impact force of any falling tool or object in your workplace. Knowing the physics behind falling objects can give you the following advantages:

It will provide you with an idea of how dangerous your tools can be when they’re dropped.

Knowing about the impact force of falling tools can help you plan for better safety measures in your workplace. This will help strengthen the workers’ awareness about the potential dangers of falling tools. It will also reinforce your company’s safety policies, particularly your tool tethering policy.

You can involve your workers in demonstrating how each tool can inflict injuries when dropped from heights. That way, they’ll know what can happen if they don’t tether or secure their tools when working at height. It’ll also prove to them that non-compliance should be treated as a grave offense.

It can help you estimate the extent of damage falling tools can cause.

When you know how much force your tools can have when they fall off a height, you’ll be better able to estimate how much damage they can cause. This can help you create mitigation plans for all the equipment and materials used in your work site.

By preparing for the possibilities of falling tools and objects in your workplace, you can better prevent injury and damage. You don’t need to master every physics principle, but having a clear idea of what impact force means can help you provide a safer workplace for everyone.

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