VIDEO: TOOLING UP: Guide to the ANSI Z359 Fall Protection Updates

DON CRAWFORD: It's more than just a harness that you put on and a lanyard or a retractable. You have to look into it. Of how the harness is put on, make sure that you're wearing it properly, because if you do have a fall, I want you to be as comfortable as you can be in an uncomfortable situation.

Narrator: This video is brought to you by Honeywell. The future is what we make it. If you're looking for real world insights, tips from leading industry experts, the latest trends in products and technology, you've come to the right place. From MSC Industrial Supply, this is Tooling Up.

TONI NEARY: Hello and welcome to Tooling Up. I'm your host, Toni Neary, and I'm so glad that you've joined us here today. Before we get to today's guest, we have a little group activity. So everybody get your clicking fingers ready to go. And on the count of three, you're going to make sure you click the like and subscribe buttons. Ready? 1... 2... 3.... Great. Now you'll never miss an episode of Tooling Up like this one. Today I'm really excited to talk about fall preventions and some of the updates to the standards with Don Crawford. Don is the safety training specialist at Honeywell. Don, thanks for joining us and welcome to Tooling Up.

DON CRAWFORD: Toni, thank you for having me on Tooling Up. I look forward to talking to you about fall prevention and fall protection with some of the equipment that Honeywell has to offer.

TONI NEARY: Fantastic. And Don, I love to learn about people's background, so pardon the pun, but how did you fall into fall prevention?

DON CRAWFORD: I just retired after 31 years of being in public safety, I was a firefighter for 23 years. As a career firefighter for a municipality in Pennsylvania. Over the years, being involved as a paramedic and, prior life also as an emergency room nurse. I see how falls can cause issues, not only in the workplace, but also people at home.

When I was working at the fire department, we would always assist the ambulance on medical calls. And unfortunately it was my father where I went on the medical call. He worked as a maintenance man at the office building, and we got called to the office building for older malethat fell. And whenever I was responding to that location, it matched his age, and he would be the only one that would be working off of a ladder.

Went and joked with my dad whenever I saw him laying on the floor. I joked with him, like, what are you doing laying down on the job? But unfortunately, my dad was up three steps up the step ladder and he fell backwards, landing on his back. We did what we normally did. We took him to the hospital, actually, the emergency room where I worked as a nurse. He got great care there. Was discharged, didn't see anything. But unfortunately, whenever, 24 hours later, his legs went numb. And here we found out that he had two broken vertebraes in his back just by the position that he landed. And it was a whole year's process to learn how to walk and major surgery.

So, very devastating. And, it's a long process to get our family back to where we need to be after that occurred.

TONI NEARY: And with your depth of experience, I'm assuming that you really could have gone anywhere to work. So tell us why you chose Honeywell.

DON CRAWFORD: The reason why I chose Honeywell was because they're a leader in public safety. Miller Fall Protection has been around for almost 80 years, or actually well over 80 years now. They're a leader in fall prevention, fall protection equipment. The training department they have is top notch. Safety is of mind by all the trainers. And I got brought in because I was able to adapt to the training needs that they had, and I had the skill set that they were looking for.

TONI NEARY: I love that, and let's spring a little into fall protection in the workplace and why it is so important.

DON CRAWFORD: At home and in the workplace, falling is a problem in the United States, and one of the places that we can prevent falls from happening is in the workplace with the equipment that is provided by not only us, but by other manufacturers. In the United States, in the construction industry, deaths from falls is the number one cause of deaths in construction.

Not having the proper equipment is the number one most cited, along with the number eight most cited OSHA citations go to fall protection training. So not only not using the equipment properly or having availability to protect yourself at heights, but also that training element becomes an issue now that they're citing for because they realize that in the United States, we're not training our individuals how to use the equipment properly.

TONI NEARY: Let's get down to the nitty gritty, and let's talk about the recent updates to the ANSI Z359 standards that are really relative for fall protection products.

DON CRAWFORD: The big changes that occurred from the products that were in the prior standard is how we use them, and how they are labeled and how they are tested. In the old standard, what we had was they were labeled as type A or type B, and with type A units. Type A units had to lock you up and stop you with a maximum arrest distance of the distance that you would fall in 24 inches. Type B units were required to lock you up and stop you within 54 inches from.

From there the units are typically with self-retracting lifelines or devices are usually used above your back. But they ran into issues with folks now working near edges where they don't have any anchors above and what we call leading edge. And we had to design systems to protect us that way, because the ones that are self-retracting devices that were used above you couldn't have the same safety is what it is hooking up for below you.

So the new standard of change, they renamed the classes. So instead of being type A, type B, they renamed it as class one or class two. And with that both units are designed to stop you within 42 inches. But the difference between them now is class one is only allowed to be used between your back D ring and up.

So like going to our harness here from that back D ring or your shoulders up. Class two, we're allowed to use from our feet all the way up above. So if you're working over or close to an edge and you don't have a good anchor point, you would have to now use a class two device. With that being said, the verbiage has changed now.

So, self-retracting lifelines basically covers anything from a standard one to be able to use over your shoulders or tie off at your feet for leading edge work. And then the other one is they changed the self-retracting lifeline for retrieval. And those devices are designed for that if somebody was going into a confined space or in an area that I can actually bring them up out of the space safely.

TONI NEARY: So, Don, we talked a little bit about class one and class two and some of the changes. But what type of industries are really using these devices?

DON CRAWFORD: Individuals that are working in factories, facilities are typically using more so I would say the class one units, because there are many that were anchors are located directly overhead. Where you start to see more of class two being used would be more in construction because they may be on top of a building where they're working, they don't have any anchor points overhead, so they're going to have to be hooking up at their feet, while they're in that area doing the work.

One other place we're you're going to see more class twos being used is typically in lifts. So one of our devices that we have here, a personal one i  going to be designed to be used on your back, is designed to be able to be hooked up into a lift into the anchor points where our class ones are not currently allowed to do that because they have to be used directly overhead.

But the class twos that I have shown here can be hooked up below your back D-ring obviously in your lift. So that's going to provide protection and be used in a proper manner.

TONI NEARY: And now let's really get into the meat of the conversation. And for me that is there's a lot of equipment, there's a lot of options out there. But using them correctly and consistency is probably, you know, one of the biggest problems out there. So tell me a little bit about the training that Honeywell does to really teach people the right devices, how to use them, how often to use them, to make sure that they're making the right choices.

DON CRAWFORD: Yeah. So our instructors and our courses that we run covers all of the equipment that you see here. It's more than just a harness that you put on and a lanyard or a retractable. There's items you have to look into it of how the harness is put on, make sure that you're wearing it properly, because if you do have a fall, I want you to be as comfortable as you can be in an uncomfortable situation.

So we teach you how to do your fall clearance calculations. What you need to read on the label to make sure that you have enough room underneath you so that whenever you do fall, that you don't hit the ground.

TONI NEARY: Don, I cannot thank you enough for your time today. So educational, so informative, and such a great service that Honeywell is out there offering to make sure that everybody does go home safe.

DON CRAWFORD: Thank you for having us on Tooling Up. I really do appreciate it. I hope you get some informative information. And with the new changes in the standards and the new equipment that's coming out, it's important to have that adequate trainin so you're always safe out there.

TONI NEARY: It was great hanging out with John today, and if you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did, you want to see more conversations like this, go ahead and click that subscribe button and follow our channel to find out more about the new Fall Protection ANSI ASSP standards, visit www.mscdirect.com/products/miller. Thanks and we'll see you next time on Tooling Up.

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the Tooling Up Video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level, and subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.