Let’s travel back in history. If you can’t remember the iconic images of men at work atop the Empire State Building in the 1920s, here’s a hint — none of them are using any form of fall protection. Many photographs capture men taking lunch breaks on steel beams, their legs dangling a long and dangerous distance from ground level. As unsafe as this sounds, it was simply the nature of the job back then. Reliable protective gear for at-height workers was years away from development.
In the early 20th century, the body belt — worn loosely around the waists of utility linemen during pole climbing — was the first form of fall protection to emerge. Soon, the drawbacks — and dangers — of using the body belt as a fall arrest device became apparent — dangerous fall arrest forces are transmitted directly to a worker’s spine and midsection. In order for the belt to successfully arrest a fall, the worker had to fall “correctly,” which still left the victim suspended horizontally. Worst case scenario, if a worker fell “incorrectly,” the belt could be pulled up to the worker’s armpits, or worse, the worker could even slip out of the belt completely.