OSHA recently issued a final rule updating its general industry Walking-Working Surfaces standards specific to slip, trip, and fall hazards.
The final rule applies to all general industry workplaces and covers
all walking-working surfaces, which include horizontal and vertical surfaces
such as floors, stairs, roofs, ladders, ramps, scaffolds, elevated walkways,
and fall protection systems. The rule also includes a new section under the
general industry Personal Protective Equipment standards that establishes
employer requirements for using personal fall protection systems.
Major Changes
Fall protection flexibility (§1910.28(b)). The final rule allows employers to
protect workers from falls by choosing from a range of accepted fall protection
systems, including personal fall protection systems. It eliminates the existing
mandate to use guardrails as the primary fall protection method and gives
employers the flexibility to determine what method they believe will work best
in their particular workplace situation.
- The final rule allows
employers to use non-conventional fall protection practices in certain
situations, such as designated areas on low-slope roofs for work that is
temporary and infrequent and fall protection plans on residential roofs
when employers demonstrate guardrail, safety net, or personal fall
protection systems are not feasible or create a greater hazard
(§1910.28(b)(1) and (b)(13));
- Updated scaffold
requirements (§1910.27(a)). The final rule replaces the outdated general
industry scaffold standards with the requirement that employers comply
with OSHA's construction scaffold standards;
- Phase-in of ladder safety
systems or personal fall arrest systems on fixed ladders (§1910.28(b)(9)).
The final rule phases in over 20 years a requirement to equip fixed
ladders (that extend over 24 feet) with ladder safety or personal fall
arrest systems and prohibits the use of cages and wells as a means of fall
protection after the phase-in deadline. The final rule grandfathers in
cages and wells on existing ladders, but requires during the phase-in
period that employers equip new ladders and replacement ladders/ladder
sections with ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems;
- Rope descent systems (RDS)
and certification of anchorages (§1910.27(b)). The final rule codifies
OSHA's memorandum for employers who use RDS to perform elevated work. The
final rule prohibits employers from using RDS at heights greater than 300
feet above grade unless they demonstrate it is not feasible or creates a
greater hazard to use any other system above that height. In addition, the
final rule requires building owners to provide and employers to obtain
information that permanent anchorages used with RDS have been inspected,
tested, certified, and maintained as capable of supporting at least 5,000
pounds per employee attached.
- Personal fall protection
system performance and use requirements (§1910.140). The final rule, which
allows employers to use personal fall protection systems (i.e., personal
fall arrest, travel restraint, and positioning systems), adds requirements
on the performance, inspection, use, and maintenance of these systems. Like
OSHA's construction standards, the final rule prohibits the use of body
belts as part of a personal fall arrest system;
- Inspection of walking-working
surfaces (§1910.22(d)). The final rule requires that employers inspect
walking-working surfaces regularly and as needed and correct, repair, or
guard against hazardous conditions; and
- Training (§1910.30). The
final rule adds requirements that employers ensure workers who use
personal fall protection and work in other specified high hazard
situations are trained, and retrained as necessary, about fall and
equipment hazards, including fall protection systems. Employers must
provide information and training to each worker in a manner the worker
understands.
Timeline
Most of the rule becomes effective 60 days after its publication in the Federal
Register (January 17), but some provisions have delayed effective dates,
including:
- Ensuring exposed workers
are trained on fall hazards (6 months);
- Ensuring workers who use
equipment covered by the final rule are trained (6 months);
- Inspecting and certifying
permanent anchorages for rope descent systems (1 year);
- Installing personal fall
arrest or ladder safety systems on new fixed ladders over 24 feet and on
replacement ladders/ladder sections, including fixed ladders on outdoor advertising
structures (2 years);
- Ensuring existing fixed
ladders over 24 feet, including those on outdoor advertising structures,
are equipped with a cage, well, personal fall arrest system, or ladder
safety system (2 years); and
- Replacing cages and wells
(used as fall protection) with ladder safety or personal fall arrest
systems on all fixed ladders over 24 feet (20 years).
More details on the Walking-WorkingSurfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems Final Rule FAQs can be found on
the OSHA website.
Additional information concerning the new
standard will be posted on the ISRI’s OSHA
Alliance webpage in the Regulatory Update section.
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