Fall protection equipment inspections ensure equipment is working properly and will keep workers safe.
Learning objectives
- Understand what inspections are legally required for fall protection equipment.
- Review who must perform equipment inspections.
- Know how frequently fall protection equipment must be inspected.
Fall protection insights
- This article will answer some of the most common questions building owners and employers have regarding their fall protection equipment inspections.
- OSHA defines what fall protection equipment must be used and its inspection schedule.
It is very likely that the same workplace hazards will continue to harm workers all over the country. Each year, falls are one of the most common causes of injury and fatality, with steady increases in recent years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, fall protection general requirements have been the leading violation cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for the past 15 consecutive years.
Many plants and facilities have committed to increasing worker safety and providing fall protection equipment to their workers. However, routine inspection and maintenance of the equipment is an essential part in ensuring the success of a fall protection program. Equipment inspections are straightforward, but many factors can affect a programโs efficiency or legal compliance. If inspections are not performed thoroughly or frequently enough, workers could be subject to faulty equipment that does not provide the anticipated safety factor.
Q: How often do I have to inspect my fall protection equipment?
A: Fall protection must be inspected by the authorized person before each use.
OSHA 29 CFR 1910 for general industry employers and OSHA 29 CFR 1926 for construction employers require daily โpre-useโ and annual inspections on all pieces of fall protection equipment. California requires construction companies to conduct semiannual equipment inspections as well. Building owners and employers should refer to local OSHA authorities to confirm their inspection schedule is legally compliant.
Pre-use inspection: These are sometimes referred to as โdailyโ inspections but are actually required by OSHA each time a worker is about to use their fall protection equipment. The user of the equipment is responsible for conducting this inspection before donning the equipment. If equipment fails inspection, it must be immediately reported to the competent person and replaced before beginning elevated work again.
Annual inspection: Annual inspections follow a similar process to the daily โpre-useโ inspections performed on fall protection equipment. However, pre-use inspections are performed by the equipment user. When documenting the inspection, the organizationโs competent person must notate the following information regarding the equipment:
- Brief description (i.e., anchor, harness, self-retracting lifeline (SRL), etc.)
- Manufacturer
- Model name
- Part number
- Date of manufacture
- Date of inspection
- Inspector name
- Inspector signature
- Pass/fail indication
Annual equipment inspection documents must be retained for the life of the equipment.
Q: What fall protection equipment must be inspected?
A: Every piece of fall protection equipment, except guardrail.
Anchors:
- Temporary anchorages: cross arm straps, beam gliders, etc.
- Permanent anchorages: anchor posts, d-ring anchors, etc.
- Noncertified anchorages: fall protection anchors purchased from a manufacturer, distributor, retailer, etc. and installed according to the manufacturer’s specification.
- Certified anchorages: after initial installation, anchors that are โcertifiedโ by qualified person or engineer for special circumstances, like horizontal lifelines, suspended access systems and more.
Body harnesses: Users must also check for appropriate fit and dorsal d-ring placement according to manufacturerโs specifications.
Connection devices:
- Lanyards
- SRL
- Horizontal lifelines
- Vertical lifelines
- Ladder safety system shuttles
Climbing/rescue devices:
- Emergency rescue ladders
- Ladder safety systems
- Permanent ladders
- Portable ladders
Q: How do I perform an equipment inspection?
A: There are three main components for users to inspect:
Manufacturer tags are intact and legible: This OSHA requirement ensures the equipment can be identified if involved in a fall incident. It also contains the detailed product information required for annual inspections.
No signs of deployment: All pieces of fall protection equipment are rated to arrest only one fall. After that, the equipment must be removed from service and replaced. ANSI Z359-compliant products will include a deployment indicator somewhere on the equipment assembly.
For example, harnesses have cross-over stitching on the rear straps that will tear to indicate a fall has occurred. Or many snaphook attachments on SRLs will reveal a red line if the equipment has arrested a fall. Employers must train their workers on how to properly perform this part of their inspection and should reference the productโs instruction manual to learn about the deployment indicators on their specific equipment.
Harnesses used with a โtrippedโ deployment indicator cannot be guaranteed to work properly and protect the worker from major injury.
Physical signs of damage, defect or dysfunction: The user must thoroughly inspect the webbing, d-rings, connectors and other components of the equipment for wear, tears, cuts, holes, frays or other damage that could cause the equipment to fail. Too much ultraviolet (UV) exposure (aka sunlight) on equipment such as harnesses, lanyards and ropes can damage the elasticity of the webbing, causing it to become brittle and frail. Discoloration is the most common sign of UV damage. Proper storage of the equipment in a locker, office or jobsite trailer can help prolong the life of the equipment and ensure safe operation for its user.
At this stage, users should confirm their harnesses fit correctly according to the manufacturer’s specifications. Proper harness fit and dorsal d-ring placement can prevent more severe injury during a fall.
Q: Who can perform equipment inspections?
A: Pre-use inspections are conducted by the equipmentโs end user and must have been trained by the organizationโs competent person.
Each organization must have (at least) one employee designated as its competent person. This person is the facilitator of their organizationโs fall protection program and is responsible for conducting annual equipment inspections, among other duties.
In larger organizations, it quickly becomes clear why multiple competent persons can help shoulder the many tasks required to maintain a comprehensive fall protection program. That is, one that operates in accordance with local OSHA jurisdictions and is also effective at preventing falls and protecting workers from injury. Compliance is fine, but injury prevention is the goal.
Each employee designated to be their organizationโs competent person must have a valid certification from an ANSI-compliant training organization and that certification must be refreshed every two years. If an organization chooses to do so, their competent person can designate a third-party equipment inspector to conduct their annual inspections.
However, the inspector then assumes liability for the fall protection system’s proper functioning. The workers, of course, must use the equipment according to the manufacturerโs instructions. Equipment inspectors must be trained at a competent person level, at a minimum.
Q: I have certified anchors in my facility. Is recertification part of the inspection process?
A: Anchor certifications are related, but not the same thing. Noncertified and certified anchors are both subject to typical annual inspections as described earlier.
Certified anchorages for active fall protection systems (horizontal lifelines, single-point systems, etc.) must be recertified every five years. Among other qualifications, an engineer or qualified person must confirm that the anchorage system is rated at a minimum of a 2:1 safety factor for the anticipated fall forces.
Anchor posts and davit arms used for suspended access systems (window washing, rope descent, swing stage systems, etc.) must be recertified every 10 years. In this recertification process, the qualified person must, among other qualitative metrics, use a pull-testing device to confirm the anchorage is capable of withstanding static loads and dynamic loads that would be incurred from a fall.
Q: We recently performed annual inspections and failed many pieces of equipment. What could that teach us about our fall protection program?
A: In theory, if users are diligently performing pre-use inspections, there should be no failures during annual inspections. Because this equipment made it back to the competent person, it might indicate that the detail was overlooked or ignored by the worker. In those cases, we recommend employers retrain their workers and make an emphasis on the importance of pre-use inspections. While OSHA does not require these inspections to be recorded, many organizations require employees to document their daily inspections to increase accountability.
Safety is everyoneโs responsibility. The employer is responsible for providing the fall protection equipment and the authorized person is responsible for inspecting the equipment and using it properly every time.
Fall protection success
Equipment inspections are a pivotal part of any fall protection program. Companies are more than empowered to maintain inspection schedules and records in-house and are also encouraged to reach out to their fall protection providers for assistance. When manufacturers, building owners, employers and end users work together to create more robust fall protection programs, workers everywhere will benefit from those efforts.
Falls are preventable, but only if organizations take the necessary time to plan, prepare and educate their workers. If we put in the effort today, we can potentially save lives tomorrow.
