Fall Protection Program
Definitions
- Aerial lift device:
- Equipment such as powered platforms, vehicle-mounted elevated and rotating work platforms, extensible boom platforms, aerial ladders, articulating boom platforms, vertical towers and powered industrial truck platforms.
- Anchor point:
- A secure point of attachment for lifelines, lanyards or deceleration (grabbing) devices.
- Anteproscenium Lighting Bridge:
- A feature of a public assembly building (theatre) where the architect, engineer, and builder have provided a position where employees can access through engineered fixed ladders, ships ladders or stairways, and where a physical building component is permanently attached to building structural components for the purpose of providing a place to mount theatrical lighting instruments and effects, and does not expose the employee to an unencumbered fall hazard from the position.
- Body harness (also referred as Full-body harness):
- An interconnected set of straps that may be secured about a person in a manner that distributes the fall arrest forces over at least the thighs, pelvis, waist, chest, and shoulders with a means for attaching the harness to other components of a personal fall arrest system.
- Box boom:
- A feature of a public assembly building (theatre) where the architect, engineer, and builder have provided a position where employees can access vertically mounted lighting instruments or effects using an engineered fixed ladder and work landing.
- Competent Person -
- One who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them.
- Deceleration device:
- Any mechanism, such as a rope, grabbing device, rip stitch lanyard, specially woven lanyard or automatic self-retracting lifeline/lanyard, which serves to dissipate a substantial amount of energy during a fall arrest, or otherwise limits the energy imposed on an employee during fall arrest.
- Deceleration distance:
- The additional vertical distance a falling person travels, excluding lifeline elongation and free fall distance, before stopping, from the point at which a deceleration device begins to operate.
- Designated area:
- A space which has a perimeter barrier erected to warn employees when they approach an unprotected side or edge, and serves also to designate an area where work may be performed without additional fall protection.
- Fixed ladder:
- A ladder, including an individual rung ladder, which is permanently attached to a structure, building, or equipment.
- Guardrail:
- A barrier at least 42 inches high erected to prevent personnel from falling from working levels more than 30 inches above the floor, ground, or other working areas of a building.
- Hole:
- A void or gap 2 inches or more in its least dimension in a floor, roof, or other walking/working surface.
- Ladder:
- A device typically used to gain access to a different elevation consisting of two or more structural members crossed by rungs, steps, or cleats. Only Type I (Heavy duty industrial) or Type II (Commercial grade) ladders shall be used by university employees.
- Ladder Safety Zone:
- An exclusion or warning zone established at the base of the ladder by deploying high visibility traffic cones. This process is used to ensure that pedestrians or other workers are made aware of work occurring overhead. A ladder safety zone must be established when using any type of portable ladder.
- Lanyard:
- A flexible line of rope or strap that generally has a connector at each end for connecting the body harness to a deceleration device, lifeline or anchor point. Lifeline: A component consisting of a flexible line for connection to an anchorage at one end to hang vertically (vertical lifeline), or for connection to anchorages at both ends to stretch horizontally (horizontal lifeline). This serves as a means for connecting other components of a personal fall arrest system to the anchorage.
- Low Slope Roof:
- A roof having a slope of less than or equal to 4 in 12 (vertical to horizontal). A roof with approximately a 19.5 degree slope or less. Lower Levels: Those areas or surfaces to which an employee can fall. Such areas include, but are not limited to, ground levels, floors, platforms, ramps, runways, excavations, pits tanks, material, water, equipment, structures, or portions thereof.
- Opening:
- A gap or void 30 inches or more high and 18 inches or more wide in a wall or partition, through which personnel can fall to a lower level.