Staying Safe While Working at Heights

Staying Safe While Working at Heights

Working at heights

Falling from height has become the world’s great killer at work place accidents, as it makes up the quarter amount of death on job.

There occurs more than 37000 non – fatal injuries at workplace and it holds big responsible for large number of working days while comparing with other accidents.

If you check these statistics, it is easy to see that there should be great improvement in case of safety of working at height

People from construction work falls more, many industries also face this kind of falling from height who involves in fields like manufacturing, agriculture, etc.

How one can stay safe while working in height?

Carrying risk assessment

According to law, the employer and contractors are held responsible for inspecting the risk before the work is been carried out.

Perfect planning should be done in the initial of the project beginning and it should be followed throughout the project by all people who involved in the activity

Safety measures like safety nets, toe boards, double guardrails, scaffold platforms should be ready according to the risk assessment.

Working at height should be planned, supervised, accordingly it should be carried out.

Equipment and devices should be checked before start using

Surface should be stable, safe and rough without any slips and the worker should feel comfortable while using any heavy equipment in height.

Whether the work is with ladder,any mechanical access system,it should be checked and inspected for damage and faults in order to ensure safety.

Whether it is 10 feet or 100 feet,the defective device may leads to serious injury, according to that the assessment should be taken before.

Health and safety training

Working at height training course is must for people involves in height activities regularly.

This course is structured and designed for various industries to make sure the employees remain safe at work. (Based on Working at Height Regulations)

This course includes teaching about tower access, ladder rescue, safety harness inspection, wind turbine training and much more.

Work should be do when the weather condition is favor

In icy conditions, the surface becomes wet and slippery. Poor condition while working may leads to major risk , ensure that the walkway or platform is flat before starting the work and mainly while working in outdoor. It is better to avoid worst weather conditions like windy season and rainy.

As the gust of wind can lead to loss of balance while working in height

Working in height during night time should be avoided, as this is more risky of missteps and trips

Essential measure should be taken to comply with these situations along with anremedy to minimize or delay the work conditions which are more suitable.

Be careful on slippery surface

Fragile surfaces are the main reason for falling from height. Falls via roof, fiber cement sheets,metals, glass, slates or tiles which are common on construction sites, factories, industry ware house, farm buildings.In case of unavoidable situation in fragile area,try to control the situation by using fall resistant, guard rails, safety nets, etc. also fixing warning notice to area. Every workers, clients,contractors are supposed to be aware about the fragile surface and treat it as important hazard factor.

Get Support from Your Colleague

To be with reliable co- workers or team,it provides support to carry out hazard work, as it acts as an easy way to minimize risk. This is a certain thing but many people thinks that they will be able to handle every equipment and devices by their own.

But this should not be used as main safety procedure, ONLY as extra equipment as the human error and limited capability are some of the prominent issue.

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