Kevin Lindley, Safety Consultant, FRSA Self Insurers Fund
Per OSHA regulations, section 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(1), there are only three types of conventional fall protection systems that are acceptable for use by any trade, in any leading-edge environment. Those three types of fall protection are 1. guardrail systems, 2. safety net systems or 3. personal fall arrest systems. For this article we are going to focus solely on the guardrail systems, the requirements for set-up, maintenance and use in the field. The need and use of guardrail systems are obvious because the guardrail system creates a safe work area in which the fall hazard is protected and provides the worker with the greatest amount of safe work zone area to operate. To fully understand the guardrail systems and how they should be set-up and function we need to break down where the system can be used, what the limitations are and what makes up the entire system. Read more.
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