From the course: Occupational Safety and Health: Slips, Trips, and Falls

Unprotected sides and edges

- This is really meant to be a course about slips, trips, and falls on the same level, as opposed to falls from heights. But protecting workers from falls from heights is really a topic that would fill another course, or two or even three. But I thought I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the topic of unprotected sides and edges while we're talking about walking in working surfaces. Walking or working near an elevated and unprotected side or edge is a big hazard. And our walking and working surfaces need to be designed to avoid this. Now, different jurisdictions will have different rules and regulations about how far up the walkway or working surface needs to be above the ground, or the level below before the sides need to be protected. But, even these should be considered just minimum requirements. For example, here in the United States, OSHA mandates that some sort of protection be provided when an edge is 48 inches or 122 centimeters above the surface below it in most workplaces. Now, at construction sites, this gets increased to six feet or about 1.8 meters. Now, there are all sorts of different circumstances that change that value, including local regulations and the type of work being done next to the edge. One of the best ways to prevent falls off of a walking or working surface is to make sure that there are no unprotected sides or edges by erecting proper guardrails that meet the local size and strength requirements. At a minimum, these guardrails should be built to withstand at least 200 pounds of force. There should be a top rail placed at 42 inches or 106 centimeters above the surface, and a mid-rail halfway in between. Now, there are certainly sites and workplaces where this can't be done. Construction sites are a common example. In this case, when people must work next to unprotected sides and edges, another way to protect them has to be implemented. Now, this could include something like placing temporary guardrails, and there are now many different ways to do this, even without permanently anchoring them to the floor. Or in some situations, the work might require the use of a personal fall arrest system, which includes a special harness and a lanyard that connects the person to a proper anchor point. On some types of construction sites, we might also see the use of fall protection nets. All of these things require extensive, special training to understand how and where to use them. And you might find this type of training in the workplace given by occupational safety specialists. Just remember, to avoid falls, it's often a good idea to go beyond the minimum standards. For example, even though the regulation here in the U.S. states that edges have to be protected when the surface is more than 1.2 meters above the level below, many sites will add chains or guardrails at places like loading docks that might only be one meter high. You know, as I've said a few times, a fall from one meter can still hurt.

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