c. Provide workers who use
personal fall protection
equipment with sufficient
knowledge about its purpose
and use
d. Reduce the number of fall-from-
heights incidents, injuries
and fatalities1
The Ontario Ministry of Labour’s
training standard for working at
heights is not meant to replace the
working at heights legislation or
the Construction Regulations. The
goal is to have it supplement and
support the legislation and Regula-tions
by ensuring that the training
adequately educates learners about
working at heights hazards and
appropriate controls.
Advancements in equipment
According to women who wear them,
and judging by the fit and style, fall pro-tection
harnesses were not designed
with female workers in mind. Thankfully,
most harnesses come in a variety of
sizes, so that women can purchase one
that fits them best. While there hasn’t
been a ton of advancement for women
who have to wear harnesses, Honeywell
Miller (a major manufacturer of fall
protection equipment) has introduced
the MS Honeywell-Miller line, designed
for women. The MS Honeywell Miller
H-style harness is designed to keep
shoulder straps to the side and away
from the chest. This style will help to
reduce breast discomfort when wearing
a harness, provided it is worn correctly.
Another exciting advancement in fall
protection equipment includes a change
to the webbing material, to add moisture-wicking
technology that increases the life
expectancy of harnesses and decreases
the likelihood of failure in the event of a
fall. Technology to decrease the weight
of Self-Retracting Lifeline technology
also aims to make life-saving equipment
more wearer-friendly.
The introduction of a the new stan-dard,
ANSI Z359 will allow the use of
metal alloys, provided they comply
with load requirements. This is note-worthy
because it may mean that
D-rings, currently manufactured using
heavy metal, can be constructed using
much lighter weight alloys, such as alu-minum.
Using alloys will decrease the
weight of the overall harness, making it
both more comfortable and less physi-cally
taxing to wear. Although ANSI
is an American standard, it still indi-cates
forward movement in working
at heights equipment advancements.
It will be interesting to see whether or
not Canadian legislation changes in
response to ANSI Z359.
Increasing the comfort and wear-ability
of fall protection equipment
impacts the likelihood that equipment
will be worn. The most oft-cited reason
for not donning PPE is comfort. The
trend toward making fall protection
more comfortable for the end-user
indicates that better wearability is a
growing trend when it comes to work-ing
at heights.
Increased enforcement
In order to ensure compliance with
all new initiatives and standards, the
Ministry of Labour in Ontario has
hired additional inspectors. Increased
enforcement is an inevitable trend;
enforcement and review ensure that
the systems, standards and technol-ogy
put in place are effectively keeping
workers safe. Continuous improve-ment
is the goal, and any failures or
inefficiencies need to be examined
and corrected. Increased enforcement
isn’t about handing out more fines; it’s
about ensuring that the system works
in order to maximize the number of
lives saved.
SAFETY
Increasing the
comfort and
wearability of
fall protection
equipment impacts
the likelihood
that equipment
will be worn.
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PANITANJOHN / 123RF STOCK PHOTO
60 Q2 2018 www.pilingcanada.ca
