New ANSI Standards for Rescue At Height
In 1997 a 26 year old man in Omaha, Nebraska fell while performing maintenance work on the side of a structure. Fortunately, the man was wearing a fall arrest system and his fall was successfully arrested, leaving him suspended in his safety harness. A co-worker and other rescuers quickly lowered the fallen worker to the ground and transported him to a medical facility where he was treated for a mild strain/sprain, and then released.
His appropriate use of a safety system and the quick, efficient response of his associates saved his life. Many employees who take a fall at work are not so fortunate.
Just a few years earlier, in 1991, an employee in Illinois slipped and fell while performing a similar type of work. His fall, too, was caught by his fall arrest system and left him suspended. Rescue, however, was not so quick in this case and the worker died from compression asphyxia while hanging in his harness. His death was directly attributed to the delay in rescue.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , non-fatal injuries and illnesses involving falls in private industry totaled 255,750 in 1995. In another 735 instances that year, falls from height resulted in death. This adds up to 256,485 incidents where a fall resulted in the need for some sort of response, rescue, or recovery effort.
Most of the lethal falls that occur in the workplace are the result of a worker not utilizing any means of fall prevention or arrest. These unprotected falls from elevated work surfaces frequently result in the individual impacting the ground, clearly negating the need for any complicated rope rescue response effort.
But what about those incidents in which the worker is left stranded at height –hanging suspended in their safety harness?
Can their employer or company ensure their rescue within 4-6 minutes? How about 15 minutes? An hour? If the answer is no, they may be gambling with OSHA compliance and, more importantly, the very lives of their employees who work at height.
As a professional rescuer, your response to the call for the rescue of a suspended worker may be impacted by new guidelines enacted by ANSI late last year.
In September 2007, specific guidelines were introduced for incorporating “rescue after a fall” into a Comprehensive Managed Fall Protection Program for General Industry in the new ANSI Z359.2 .
The New ANSI Z359.2 charges each business that encounters a situation where someone works at height to appoint a Fall Protection Program Administrator. This person would in turn work to develop rescue procedures for every location where an active fall protection system is used to control a fall hazard.
So with the enactment of ANSI Z359, there is a strong likelihood that your department or agency may be contacted by a Fall Protection Program Administrator from a business in your district that has employees who work at height for the purpose of establishing a Rescue Plan to keep in compliance.