Fall hazards are one of the most dangerous and persistent risks at construction sites. Despite awareness, fall-related injuries continuously occur. While safety systems are available, the lack of continuous usage leads to a compliance gap.

Various construction sites rely on protective equipment, administrative controls, and training programs to achieve fall prevention. However, tight deadlines and worker fatigue make it impractical for construction workers to stay consistent in adhering to traditional fall safety guidelines. Even highly-trained workers can forget to use safety harnesses. This unintentional negligence can increase the likelihood of falls. Therefore, the solution is to install fall safety netting as a passive fall protection strategy.

In this post, we’ll compare safety nets with harnesses. We’ll also reveal why installing passive fall protection can help save lives in the long run.

What Makes Harnesses Insufficient for Fall Protection?

It’s not uncommon for safety managers to provide workers with harnesses for fall injury prevention. But can harnesses protect all workers from fall injuries? Many employers assume that harnesses can prevent workplace fall injuries. However, the bitter truth is that harnesses have a lot of requirements for workers:

·       selecting relevant anchor points

·       securing straps and ties

·       ensuring continuous usage during the entire work shift

This safety system seems effective in theory. But in reality, making it a daily practice can be a burden for workers.

Using harnesses properly requires time, effort, and perfection. Even a slight deviation can nullify their purpose – thereby, dangerously increasing the chances of workplace falls. That’s why harnesses aren’t the ultimate solution to achieve compliance.

Everything About Passive Fall Protection

Passive fall systems are safety systems in which workers aren’t liable to take any specific actions to protect themselves from a fall. These safety systems are independent of workers’ individual behavior. After a fall safety system is installed, workers are automatically safe due to the continuous coverage it provides to them. Even if the workers accidentally fall from a specific height, they’d fall onto the netting that’s already installed to protect them from a fall injury.

Also called personal safety netting fall protection is an effective form of passive fall safety. It’s a common safety netting installed beneath work areas where numerous personnel are required to work at heights. Examples of elevated workplaces where personal safety netting can be used include construction sites, high-rise buildings, large warehouses, shipyards, power plants, and other industrial facilities.

Fall safety netting reduces the impact of a fall as it immediately catches the worker in case of a fall. This form of fall protection is automatic. All it needs is proper installation and maintenance.

Why Fall Safety Netting Helps Improve Compliance More Than Harnesses

There are several reasons why employers should prefer passive fall protection to stay compliant. Let’s explore each one of these:

Fewer actions required to stay compliant

Fall safety netting minimizes the number of compliance actions that are required on an individual basis. Under OSHA standards for net safety systems, employers must conduct a drop test after installing safety nets and before making these available for workers. Once fall safety netting fulfills this action point, it means that its installation is compliant-ready.

Harnesses have an opposite requirement. Making proper use of harnesses relies on user training, continuous behavior, and proper fit. Workers must follow strict usage instructions every time they are working at a height.    

Reduced human error from a regulatory viewpoint

Improper adjustments, uneven enforcement, and unanchored harnesses can lead to fall injuries instead of protection. Inadequate training and workers’ forgetfulness also account for this negligence. Based on these human factors, the usage of harnesses can lead to increased compliance violations. Personal safety netting works differently by eliminating these compliance failure points.

Safety netting proactively saves workers’ lives without human intervention. A properly installed fall safety netting will catch the falling workers even if they are tired, negligent, forgetful, or distracted. Thus, it dramatically decreases the chances of fall injuries. By implementing this high-compliant fall protection strategy, employers don’t have to worry about any violations or penalties.

Visible protection means verifiable compliance

The OSHA inspector or a regulatory auditor can easily see compliance throughout the work site. A professionally installed fall safety netting with inspection records and certification tags is highly visible. It’s also auditable proof. That’s why safety nets provide high visibility to auditors who check compliance. Their validity can be evaluated in a couple of minutes.

To verify the level of compliance for harnesses, inspectors must check the harness fit, connection point, and anchorage strength of every worker. It can be a time-consuming process.

Zone-based fall protection makes compliance documentation less complicated

Personal safety netting can be engineered to cover large construction areas or other industrial open work zones. Therefore, it provides comprehensive coverage across the entire job site. It standardizes fall protection for all workers in that particular zone. It means that no worker can be at risk of a workplace fall. This eliminates the risk of any isolated falls.

Instead of documenting the number of workers who had been issued harnesses, training logs for each worker, and anchor certifications, zone-based safety netting simplifies the documentation process. It’s area-based rather than person-based. So, instead of monitoring and recording the fall protection efforts of dozens of employees, inspectors or internal reviewers only need to document drop-test results, load ratings, maintenance logs, and inspection logs of one large safety netting that covers a single, large work zone.

Reduces training burden on supervisors

Harnesses place a compliance burden on supervisors as well as workers. Every worker must be trained to use harnesses. Supervisors are required to continuously monitor the anchorage selection, tie-offs, and the harness fit in every shift. On large job sites, even a slight lapse can lead to regulatory violations. Retraining workers and monitoring them repeatedly is another challenge for supervisors.

Fall safety netting relieves supervisors from the constant burden of training workers because OSHA recognizes safety nets as a highly compliant fall protection system. However, the only requirement is to ensure the netting passes the drop test and is maintained well.   

The Takeaway

Providing the best fall protection to workers must be the primary responsibility of every employer. While harnesses remain necessary in certain applications, their usefulness depends on how responsibly the workers use them. Personal safety netting solves this problem by providing passive protection.

To ensure longevity, the key is to invest in fall safety netting that performs well even in extreme conditions. Contractors, safety managers, and construction managers aiming to reduce the likelihood of workplace falls should rigorously evaluate the quality of fall safety netting before making the purchase. A few essential features to look for include fiber strength, connection hardware, UV resistance, coverage area, edge reinforcement, and compliance documentation.

Once you’ve successfully selected a long-lasting, purpose-built fall safety netting, you can consider it an asset that helps protect your workers and keeps your business growing.