Construction Fall Protection


Personal fall protection in the construction industry. A brief history.
First we called them sissy belts. Each tool trailer had a couple of safety belts but we used them more often as tools rather than safety devices. Our cowboy attitude discouraged us from ever becoming dependant on them. Any display of fear or hesitation aloft would certainly bring criticism, mistrust, harassment and possibly even termination. After all how could you get anything done?
Prior to the debut of OSHA the cost of construction projects were estimated in terms of dollars and lives. The general rule of thumb was a life for each million dollars. Falls were by far the most common cause of fatal accidents.
During the early seventies the advent of OSHA and the rising cost of litigation caused construction companies to begin changing their attitude about personal fall protection. In the early days of OSHA we were required to wear safety belts but most of us were negligent about properly securing them to avoid falls. Some of us were downright stubborn. A far too familiar sight was a worker lying broken on the ground with the lanyard of his safety belt tied into a knot neatly out of his way. After all how could we get anything done?
While making surprise inspections OSHA began to levy heavy fines on the contractor and employee as well. Agents commonly gathered evidence from offsite positions with the use of telescopic photo lenses. Insurance companies put heavy pressure on their client construction companies. By the end of the seventies most of us were accustomed to using safety belts and were encouraged to use them properly.
The eighties brought about the concept of 100 % tie off. A worker was than required to have two lanyards attached to his safety belt. If used properly the worker would be secured by at least one lanyard 100% of the time. No longer could he walk a beam or even move around freely. Moving from one place to another turned into a monotonous chore of fastening and unfastening the safety lanyards. How could we ever get anything done?
By the nineties the risk management bean counters began to take a closer look at injuries caused by safety belts. The safety belt could most certainly save a life but at the same time could cause serious back injuries. While safety experts instructed us to wear the lanyard in the back to avoid back injury the state of the art belt had