Page 42 - Occupational Health & Safety, March 2018

FALL PREVENTION
If we know these accidents are going to happen, we can identify the causes and design safety features to prevent them.
the ladder to get the job done. The top step of a stepladder has a sticker on it that says, “This is not a rung. Don’t stand here.” If the only purpose for the top step is to hold the sticker tell you not to use it, why is it there in the first place? If it’s not there, you can’t use it, and hopefully it will discourage you from standing on the top of the ladder.
3. Leveling a ladder. When I ask people how they level their ladder, the common response is bricks and boards. There are several companies that make levelers you can add to your ladders. Some ladder com- panies are building leveling devices inte- grated right into the ladders.
4. Over-reaching. Improper leveling and over-reaching are the major causes of tip-and-fall accidents. These accidents cause thousands of disabling injuries and hundreds of fatalities every year. We train people to keep their bodies between the side rails of the ladder, but we know that doesn’t always happen. One solution to this problem is adding outriggers to the bot- tom of an extension ladder to increase the footprint. If the climber can’t get outside of the footprint of the ladder, he won’t be able to tip it over. Those outriggers would
Training alone is not enough. We know how people misuse ladders, so we can add safety features to prevent the ac- cidents from happening--even when they are misused.
also level to the ground, giving the ladder a wide-level base. Also, by adding a caged platform at the top of a stepladder, you can keep the user centered inside the footprint of a stepladder, as well.
OSHA has great ladder safety training on its website. The American Ladder Insti- tute offers free online ladder safety train- ing at its website, www.laddersafetytrain- ing.org, but training alone is not enough. We know how people misuse ladders, so we can add safety features to prevent the accidents from happening—even when they are misused. Safety through design, not just safety training.
David Francis is National Director of Safety for Little Giant Ladder Systems.
against those dangers. The lowest form of design is putting a warning sticker on it. Have you looked at the side rail of a lad- der lately? It’s covered with warning labels full of fine print. While other products have improved and become safer, ladder compa- nies have just added more stickers to tell you what not to do.
Grandpa’s ladder hasn’t changed much in design in hundreds of years. They’ve changed the material from wood to alumi- num to fiberglass (which is non-conduc- tive), but the basic design has remained unchanged. There are a lot of stickers tell- ing you how to safely use the product, and companies hold training classes to teach you how to use the product safely—but, statistically, we know people are still going to do things that will cause an accident. If we know these accidents are going to hap- pen, we can identify the causes and design
safety features to prevent them.
1. Ladders are too heavy. In some ser-
vice industries, almost half of ladder-re- lated injuries are strains and sprains from handling a heavy ladder. Some workers are doing 8-12 visits a day with a 28-foot extension ladder that weighs more than 70 pounds. (You thought you were tired at the end of a day.) The solution to this problem is to make lighter ladders. New fiberglass materials are available and can reduce the weight of your ladder by 20 percent. Most ladder companies now offer a lighter-weight version of some ladders.
2. People use the wrong ladder for the job. This happens mostly because the right ladder for the job is too heavy. If I have the choice to carry a 4-foot steplad- der or an 8-foot stepladder, I’ll probably carry the 4-footer and try to make it work by climbing on the top step or top cap of
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