In any industry where employees are required to work from an elevated height, the risks of falling must be taken into careful consideration. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “Falls are one of the leading causes of traumatic occupational death, accounting for eight percent of all occupational fatalities from trauma.”

At last year’s National Safety Council Congress and Expo, OSHA presenters noted that fall protection was the agency’s second-most cited violation category. That’s no surprise — fall protection consistently ranks among OSHA’s highest number of inspections and total fines.

Slips, trips and falls are one of the leading causes of workplace accidents each year. Many factors contribute to these accidents, including poorly maintained floors, the use of inappropriate products for floor care, cords or cables stretched across walkways, failure to clean up spills, and ignoring methods and equipment to avoid spills in the first place.

When OSHA published its proposed rule for Walking-Working Surfaces and Fall Protection last year, it was the culmination of a regulatory project that’s been brewing for decades. For the members of the Fall Protection Group of the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA), it was a mark of success in efforts to get the agency to focus on protecting workers from falls.

Because a number of safety standards are available for fall protection equipment manufacture and use, it can be difficult to determine which standard should be followed, depending on the work being performed and the type of structure involved.

Learn proper and safe usage of a retractable lanyard, as well as its advantage and disadvantages.

Based on the growing popularity of SRLs, it is critical that fall protection training courses teach workers how to use these devices correctly.

Falls from height, even when protection is used, can be violent, injurious events.