History

The revision of ANSI/ASSE Z359.1 recently received final ANSI administrative approval, with an effective date of Aug. 14, 2017.

Why this standard is important

Since the last revision of Z359.1 in 2007, many new voluntary consensus standards have been developed within the Z359 series to cover various specific types of fall protection products and processes. Some manufacturers chose not to follow the equipment specific standards, yet claimed compliance with the most current version of Z359.1. At the time, those statements were true by virtue of the fact that Z359.1 did not specifically address the elements covered by the other 11 standards in the Z359 family.

The 2016 revision closes that potential loophole by referencing each of the Z359 standards. To be compliant with a standard, manufacturers must meet all of its provisions. With the publication of the 2016 revision to Z359.1, all of the requirements of the 2007 standard have been superseded. As a result, manufacturers claiming to comply with the most current Z359.1 standard must now meet the provisions of all of the existing Z359 family of standards.

Fall Protection in Construction

Originally, Z359 still did not cover fall protection in construction applications, historically the domain of the A10 family of standards. This would change in February 2015, when the Z359 committee voted that going forward, its standards would cover equipment used in construction and demolition operations, which had previously been excluded due to the existence of A10 standards.

Hazards

Based on 2014 published data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 261,930 private industry and state and local government workers missed one or more days of work due to injuries from falls on the same level or to lower levels1, and 798 workers died from such falls.

General Requirements

The current Z359 contains 12 standards:

• Z359.0-2012, Definitions and Nomenclature Used for Fall Protection and Fall Arrest;
• Z359.1-2016, The Fall Protection Code;
• Z359.2-2007, Minimum Requirements for a Comprehensive Managed Fall Protection Program;
• Z359.3-2007, Safety Requirements for Positioning and Travel Restraint Systems;
• Z359.4-2013, Safety Requirements for Assisted- Rescue and Self-Rescue Systems, Subsystems and Components;
• Z359.6-2009, Specifications and Design Requirements for Active Fall Protection Systems;
• Z359.7-2011, Qualification and Verification Testing of Fall Protection Products;
• Z359.11-2014, Safety Requirements for Full Body Harnesses;
• Z359.12-2009, Connecting Components for Personal Fall Arrest Systems;
• Z359.13-2013, Personal Energy Absorbers and Energy Absorbing Lanyards;
• Z359.14-2014, Safety Requirements for Self-Retracting Devices for Personal Fall Arrest and Rescue Systems;
• Z359.15-2014, Safety Requirements for Single Anchor Lifelines and Fall Arresters for Personal Fall Arrest Systems.

The current Z359 Fall Protection Code package includes:

• ANSI/ASSE Z359.0-2012 – “Definitions and Nomenclature Used for Fall Protection and Fall Arrest” Provides terminology and definitions used through the code
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.1-2007 – “Safety Requirements for Personal Fall Arrest Systems, Subsystems and Components” Sets safety requirements for personal fall arrest systems, subsystems and components for connectors, full body harnesses, lanyards, energy absorbers, anchorage connectors, fall arresters, vertical lifelines and self-retracting lanyards
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.2-2007 – “Minimum Requirements for a Comprehensive Managed Fall Protection Program” Establishes guidelines and requirements for developing and implementing a comprehensive managed fall protection program
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.3-2007 – “Safety Requirements for Positioning and Travel Restraint Systems” Provides the minimum guidelines for the system design, manufacture and test of personal work positioning and travel restraint systems
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.4-2013 – “Safety Requirements for Assisted-Rescue and Self-Rescue Systems, Subsystems and Components” Establishes requirements for performance, design, marking, qualification, instruction, training, use, maintenance and removal from service of equipment used in preplanned assisted-rescue and self-rescue for one or two workers
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.6-2009 – “Specifications and Design Requirements for Active Fall Protection Systems” Specifies requirements for the design and performance of complete active fall-protection systems, including travel-restraint and vertical and horizontal fall-arrest systems and is intended for engineers with expertise in designing fall-protection systems
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.7-2011 – “Qualification and Verification Testing of Fall Protection Products” Sets requirements for certification of ANSI Z359 Code products and components as well as requirements for third-party testing, witness testing and manufacturer self-certification of fall protection products and components
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.11-2014 – “Safety Requirements for Full Body Harnesses” Establishes requirements for the performance, design, marking, qualification, instruction, training, test methods, inspection, use, maintenance and removal from service of full body harnesses used for fall arrest, positioning, restraint, suspension and/or rescue applications
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.12-2009 – “Connecting Components for Personal Fall Arrest System” Sets requirements for the performance, design, marking, qualification, test methods and removal from service of connectors
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.13-2013 – “Personal Energy Absorbers and Energy Absorbing Lanyards” Establishes requirements for the performance, design, marking, qualification, instructions, inspection, maintenance and removal from service of energy absorbing lanyards and personal energy absorbers
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.14-2014 – “Safety Requirements for Self-Retracting Devices For Personal Fall Arrest and Rescue Systems” Sets requirements for performance, design, qualification testing, marking and instructions, inspection, maintenance and storage, and removal from service of self-retracting devices including self-retracting lanyards (SRL’s), self-retracting lanyards with integral rescue capability (SRL-R’s), and self-retracting lanyards with leading edge capability (SRL-LE’s), comprising personal fall arrest or rescue systems
• ANSI/ASSE Z359.15-2014 – “Safety Requirements for Single Anchor Lifelines and Fall Arresters for Personal Fall Arrest and Rescue Systems” Sets requirements for the performance, design, marking, qualification, instruction, inspection, use, maintenance and removal from service of vertical lifelines

These five remaining proposed Standards of the ANSI Z359 Fall Protection Code are in development:

• ANSI Z359.5 – “Safety Requirements for Personal Fall Arrest Systems” Will set guidelines for a competent person
• ANSI Z359.8 – “Managed Fall Protection Program” Will provide information and guidance on fall protection practices and procedures for rope access work
• ANSI Z359.16 – “Safety Requirements for Fall Arresters for Personal Fall Arrest Systems” Will establish requirements for the performance, design, marking, qualification, instruction, training, inspection, use, maintenance and removal from service of fall arrestor components
• ANSI Z359.17 – “Safety Requirements for Horizontal Lifelines for Personal Fall Arrest Systems” Will set requirements related to the design, performance, testing, labeling and provisions for pre-engineered flexible horizontal lifeline systems
• ANSI Z359.18 – “Safety Requirements for Anchorage Connectors for Personal Fall Arrest Systems” Will establish requirements for the performance, design, marking, qualification, selection, instructions, inspection, maintenance and removal from service of anchorage connectors for personal fall protection systems

Future Z359 standards activity

• Z359.16, Safety Requirements for Climbing Ladder Fall Arrest Systems; revisions to Z359.0, Z359.2, Z359.3 and Z359.6 by the end of 2016;
• Z359.18, Safety Requirements for Anchorage Connectors for Active Fall Protection Systems, new standard expected during the first quarter of 2017;
• Z359.9, Personal Equipment for Protection Against Falls—Decending Devices, new standard in development;
• Z359.17, Safety Requirements for Horizontal Lifelines for Personal Fall Arrest Systems, new standard in development.

Voluntary Compliance Assistance

NSSN (www.nssn.org) is a resource to help employers inform themselves. It is a search engine administered by ANSI that provides users with standards-related information from standards bodies and international organizations. Searching any standard internationally by keyword, title or document number returns the status and date of each related standard.

Source material: Reprinted with permission of ASSE from October, 2016 Professional Safety article by Tina Angley, PS managing editor.

Sponsor: MaltaDynamics.com, (800) 494-1840