Some leading safety equipment manufacturers are joining forces to help to standardize the solutions available to protect workers from objects falling from heights – a type of accident that accounts for about five percent of all workplace fatalities.

The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) is spearheading the effort, which involves 3M/Capital Safety Group, Ergodyne and other manufacturers.

The objective is to provide employers with a document that establishes minimum design, performance, and labeling requirements for solutions that reduce dropped objects incidents in industrial and occupational settings. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 240 fatalities in 2014 in the U.S. caused by being struck by a falling object or equipment.

Dropped objects can include hand tools, instrumentation, small parts, structural components and other items that have to be transferred and used at heights; and the implications from struck-by injuries can range from inconvenience or loss of productivity to life-altering injury or death. This is especially important in oil and gas, construction, energy and telecommunications infrastructure, shipping operations and aviation industries, where elevated work areas are common.

The objective is to provide employers with a document that establishes minimum design, performance, and labeling requirements for solutions that reduce dropped objects incidents in industrial and occupational settings.

An industry first, the proposed standard will focus on preventative solutions actively used by workers to mitigate these hazards, and address the classification and testing of these solutions.

“This standard will provide employers with important guidance on how to minimize the risk of dropped object incidents. That’s an important part of any safety program,” said Dan Shipp, President of ISEA.

Planning efforts are underway for drafting the standard document, with a meeting scheduled for May 26, 2016 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Stakeholders are invited to share valuable insights into best practices on the proper use, selection, and technologies in dropped objects solutions, and collectively help to draft a standard that can be used in future product development.

Interested parties should contact ISEA Director of Membership and Technical Services Cristine Fargo, cfargo@safetyequipment.org for more information.