Falls account for a significant number of severe workplace or on-the-job accidents and fatalities. As such, employers or businesses are required to set up work environments and conditions such that workers cannot fall off overhead or elevated platforms or drop into holes in floors or walls.
Generally, employers can install roof fall protection and guard rails to ensure the safety of their workers. For instance, fall protection is required for workstations that are four feet high in the case of general industry workplaces. These protective measures are necessary for personnel working above dangerous systems or machines, regardless of the potential fall distance.
An employer (or business) should implement the fall protection measures below to comply with the law as well as guarantee the safety of their personnel:
Guard floor holes: If your workplace has floor holes into which workers could accidentally walk, provide protection using a hole cover or rails and toe-boards.
Open-sided elevated platforms: If your employees will be operating from elevated platforms, runways, or floors that are open on one side, prevent their fall using safety rail guards.
Dangerous machines or systems: In case your employees will be walking or operating from above dangerous systems, machinery, material, or equipment, protect them from accidentally falling into such places and getting injured or killed. You can install guard rails and toe-boards to provide fall protection. Conveyor systems and acid vats are typical cases of danger from which your employees require fall protection.
Unique cases: Some workplaces have unique operations or designs that pose different kinds of fall threats to employees. It's the responsibility of an employer to assess such specific fall risks and provide adequate fall protection systems. For example, some industrial settings require roof fall protection. In other cases, stair railing and hand rails are critical measures too. All protective measures should guarantee worker safety while working as well as walking.
Providing fall protection at the workplace is beneficial to both employees and their employers. For starters, employers can avoid costly litigation and compensation claims when they optimize the safety of their workers this way. Additionally, fall protection is a requirement that's important to the long-term legal feasibility of different types of industrial projects, businesses, and operations. Equally important, fall protection helps keep employees healthy, happy, and safe.
If you're an employer, don't hesitate to implement fall protection at your workplace by setting up safety railings and other practical preemptive installations relevant to your type of industrial operations. Check out and know more about roof fall protection systems.
Read more info from this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_rail
