New Developments in Fall Protection & Confined Space

New Developments in Fall Protection & Confined Space

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June is National Safety Month—we should all use this time to raise awareness, assess our current safety programs, and take the appropriate measures to stay educated and continuously improve the safety culture at our workplace.

In honor of National Safety Month, we’d like to run through some key new developments in fall protection, as well as new technologies in confined space air monitors. This information will help ensure you’re up-to-date and making the appropriate safety decisions when it comes to matters relating to fall protection and confined space safety.

 

New Developments in Fall Protection

New developments in self-retracting lifelines (SRLs) and harnesses help ensure workers tasked with wearing the devices not only have to wear them, but want to wear them. Check out the information below to learn more about up-and-coming features in fall protection devices. If these features would help make your job easier, you may want to consider purchasing products and equipment with these updated features. We supply numerous fall protection products.

New Harness Development:

  • Breathable, Cooled Padding: Allows greater airflow and helps workers stay cool when working in warm work environments.
  • Torso Adjustors: Help workers maintain a fit suited to their body, while also keeping excess webbing out of the way.
  • Updated Connectors: Help lock down more loose ends and store excess webbing for added security.
  • Aluminum Rings: Reduce the weight of the harness, while remaining reliable.
  • Quick-Connect Adaptors: Simplify connecting devices.
  • Load Distribution Shoulders: Redistribute weight and free your shoulders.
Recent integrated harness systems help track the state of harness equipment and manage safety inspection programs.

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New Self-Retracting Lifeline (SRL) Developments:

  • Built-In Connectors: Make attachment to harness easy.
  • Compact Design: Provides comfort to wearer.
  • Impact-Resistant Thermoplastic Housing: Makes SRL more resilient.
  • Swiveling Anchorage Loops: Make movement easy.
  • Incident Reporting Improvements: Allow you to know the date and time of any brake event; some SRLs now have a service light to indicate whether brake event occurred.
  • Improved Compliance: SRLs can track usage, so you know how and when product was used.

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New Technologies in Confined Space Air Monitors

  • Smaller Monitors: Make transportation and handling easier than ever before.
  • Bluetooth Capability: Eases communication between workers at a site.
  • Compliance Monitors: Help ensure equipment has been bump tested.
  • One-Button Operation: Makes the equipment more accessible and easy-to-use.
  • Cloud-Based Systems: Allow you to view system data on the cloud.
  • Better Life Expectancy: Life expectancy of monitors is now around three or more years (not long ago, a one-year warranty was relatively common).

Shop Air Monitors Now

 

Related Conney Trainings & Services

Conney offers an array of trainings and customized safety services related to a variety of areas in safety, including fall protection and confined space. For more information on these offerings, please visit our Safety Services page or contact one of our Certified Safety Professionals toll-free at 800-462-1947 or safetysupport@conney.com.

 

Gas Detection Equipment Repair

Conney’s factory-certified technicians can provide repair services for gas detection and environmental instruments to manufacturers’ specifications, whether you have one monitor or a fleet of units. Conney also provides warranty work and preventative maintenance programs.

Services include inspection, calibration, sensor changes, warranty repair, and other maintenance.

Benefits of using Conney's Repair Center:
  • Decreased equipment down time
  • Decreased repair costs
  • Increased performance and reliability
  • Increased ROI

 

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Fall Protection Equipment Inspections

Fall protection violations continue to rank #1 with OSHA—let us help take some of the worry away from your inspection process.

Conney can competently inspect and document your fall protection devices such as winches, self-retracting lifelines (SRLz), harnesses, and other fall protection equipment. If you know your fall protection winch or SRL is damaged or involved in a fall, we work directly with manufacturers such as 3M Fall Protection, Miller Fall Protection, MSA, and others to both repair these devices and to keep your equipment working safely.

Fall protection equipment should be competently inspected at a minimum once per year. Our team of safety professionals can help you identify better safety products that will fit your specific work needs, allowing project productivity to be maintained.

 

Fall Protection Training – Construction

Lack of proper safety training is commonly an item on OSHA's annual list of top 10 violations.

OSHA regulations state that the employer shall provide a training program for each employee who might be exposed to fall hazards. Even without injury or death, OSHA can impose a $7,000 fine for untrained workers. Make sure your facility is taking proper measures to mitigate the risk of injury and citations!

We provide customizable Fall Protection Training for Construction based on your company’s unique needs.

Our training is conducted by a Competent Person and can cover any combination of the following:
  • Nature of fall hazards in the work area
  • Use and operation of personal fall arrest systems being used (or other protective systems)
  • Review and/or development of fall protection plans
  • Identifying fall clearance requirements and how it pertains to where employees will be working
  • Equipment inspection procedures
  • Discussion of rescue plans
  • Other topics – as needed

 

Fall Protection Training – General Industry

"OSHA’s “Walking-Working Surfaces” standard is meant to address the serious slips, trips, and falls that occur every day in businesses across the country. Employees who work at heights in “other-than-construction” type businesses are required to have fall protection training when working above 4'. Also, any employee working on aerial or scissor lift vehicles must have documented fall protection training and operator certification.

Conney Safety’s customized Fall Protection Training tailors training to meet the needs of the workers involved with at-height activities. While the agenda for this training will mirror what we cover in our Construction-focused training sessions, we focus this training on General Industry work activities that are specific to your organization.

Our training is conducted by a Competent Person and can cover any combination of the following:
  • Nature of fall hazards in the work area
  • Use and operation of personal fall arrest systems being used (or other protective systems)
  • Review and/or development of fall protection plans
  • Identifying fall clearance requirements and how it pertains to where employees will be working
  • Equipment inspection procedures
  • Discussion of rescue plans
  • Other topics – as needed

 

Many workplaces contain spaces that are considered to be “confined” because their configurations hinder the activities of employees who must enter into, work in, or exit from them. Often, employees who work in confined spaces face increased risk of exposure to serious physical injury from hazards such as entrapment, engulfment, and hazardous atmospheric conditions. If employees are expected to enter confined spaces, the employer is required to develop a written permit-required entry program and provide training for the entrant, attendant, and the supervisor. Conney can help in developing entry programs, as well as implementing Confined Space Trainings!

Training may cover the following:
  • Overview of OSHA’s permit-required confined space entry standard
  • OSHA definition of key terms
  • Health and safety hazards associated with confined space work
  • Identifying which confined spaces are “permit-required” (and potential reclassification)
  • Signage requirements
  • Duties of entrants, attendants, and entry supervisors
  • Requirements for confined space rescue and emergency services
  • OSHA requirements for dealing with on-site contractors
  • PPE requirements
  • Identifying and measuring atmospheric hazards
  • Ventilation techniques

Related: Learn more about Confined Space Training on our website.

 

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