If the staff on your factory premises need to use height safety products, here are some tips you might find helpful. 

Ask the staff who use these products to notify you if their harnesses no longer fit them

It's important to ask the staff who'll be using the height safety products to let you know if their body size changes significantly, to the point where their safety harnesses no longer fit them. Their harness will be one of the most important height safety items they'll need to wear. Whilst most safety harnesses are adjustable, they cannot be adjusted to make them substantially tighter or looser. Instead, when a person no longer fits into their safety harness, they need to start wearing a different-sized harness.

If a staff member of yours notices that their harness isn't fitting them anymore and they don't tell you about this, the harness may no longer protect them during a fall. As such, you must encourage your staff who'll be wearing this safety gear to speak up if they need to switch to a different-sized harness.

Do not permit your staff to continue wearing their height safety equipment after it's used to stop a fall

It's essential to ensure your staff know they're not permitted to carry on wearing their height safety equipment after it's been used to stop them from falling. If or when this happens, the staff member should be lowered to the ground (via the scissor lift or other equipment they were standing on). After this, they should remove their helmet, lanyard and harness and should either inspect it themselves or have another employee inspect it. If the equipment shows any sign of having been damaged because of this incident, they should put on new safety equipment before they finish off the work they had to do.

It's possible for safety products to be damaged during these incidents. In the above-mentioned scenario, for example, the harness that the person was wearing could have scraped against the scissor lift when the person fell downward, and become frayed as a result. This damage could make the harness more likely to break during a future fall if the frayed section did not get repaired.

If a person in this situation were to get back on the equipment after this incident and carry on wearing their safety equipment and then fall a second time, the harness might not fully protect them and they might get injured.

If you need new height safety products, contact a supplier near you.