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Fall protection needs an anchorage that is capable of holding in the event of a fall. Makes sense. But how do you know if a certain point is beefy enough to hold a full-grown man and his tools doing a 6-12 ft. free fall? Unless you've had a certified anchorage installed, chances are you won't know for certain. So try to err on the side of caution. The old adage about anchorage points is that they need to support 5,000 lbs. We usually tell folks that if they can imagine dangling a Ford F …

Your  harness is a pillar of your fall protection equipment. Picking the right one depends on the type of work you do, how often you do it, and what your budget can afford. Here are our picks for the best harnesses for tower climbers looking at cost, comfort, adjustment, and weight. The king of the tower climbing harnesses is still the DBI-SALA ExoFit NEX for Tower Climbing. This very comfortable tower harness has a spring-loaded dorsal D-ring and a range of other smart adjust …

When isolating or ventilating a permit-required confined space, it is critical that a competent person on your team take meter readings with a 4-gas monitor for oxygen (O2), toxic gases and if applicable, combustible gases (VOCs) with a PID to determine if the processes have been effective. Of course you already know this if you or your company are performing this type of work. But are you measuring for the correct PEL levels? PEL limits change with some regularity, and what may be r …

A good customer (all our customers are good, of course) recently asked us to figure out exactly how many bump tests they would get from a 58L of NIST Traceable Gas for their new Gas Clip Technologies Multi Gas Clip (MGC) Monitors (with 2 month battery charge life). The quick answer - a little over 300, and maybe as many as 600. But there's a catch. Calibration gas has a shelf like. It's longer than a gallon of milk, but still shorter than you might expect. The 4-gas mixture for …

"OSHA certified" is a bit of a misnomer. OSHA produces the standards which personal protective equipment must meet, but the organization doesn't certify equipment. The  Allegro air line respiratory systems, for example, are made to fulfill safety requirements, and are useful against a range of workplace challenges. While you need equipment that meets the OSHA requirements for your specific work place challenge, you won't find anything that is actually OSHA certified or OSHA approved. …

The most common injury among all construction and industrial workers is a hand injury. Makes perfect sense. Our hands are the tools we use most often. And we've all probably put them places we shouldn't. To better protect your important assets, new gloves from HexArmor have been added to our PK Safety site. Glove science has made big advances over the past 10 years. Didn't realize there was such a thing as glove science? Well there is. We send our Customer Service Reps …

For safe entry of a permit-required confined space (PRCS), OSHA designates roles for key persons involved in the procedure.  Workers trained in these responsibilities are the only ones who should be involved in these potentially hazardous tasks. Workers' roles vary depending on the amount of training and experience they have working in confined spaces.  The first role we will discuss is that of the Attendant.  The duties described in OSHA standard 1910.146 require an Attendan …

If you're working in site maintenance, oil and gas production, or other large facilities, you likely have loads of fall protection equipment that requires periodic inspection by a competent person. OSHA sets requirements for regular inspection, and defines the type of person who can sign off on these reviews. A Competent Person in the eyes of all-mighty OSHA is simply someone who can identify the hazards of their workplace environment and who has the authorization to take immediate measure …

The simple definition of a confined space is an area that is large enough for a worker to enter and work, but that is tough to get in and out of and isn’t designed for regular occupancy. With a definition like that, there are so many spaces that would qualify - under the sink, an attic crawl space, the shed that houses an air compressor. While all of them qualify as a confined space, not all of them will be classified as a permit-required confined space (PRCS). OSHA has copious files re …

Gas monitors need regular calibration and bump testing if you want to be sure they are working properly. Like a guitar, monitors can drift out of tune. You've got a couple of choices to get it working properly. And as everyone who owns a gas monitor knows - whether it's a multi-gas monitor like the GasAlert Micro Clip XT, or a single-gas monitor like the Gas Clip Technologies H2S Monitor - a quick bump test before using it to protect your life is an excellent, and highly recommen …