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Falls in confined spaces are often painful. Sometimes they require rescue from other team members. In these cases it's important that the fallen worker isn't simply hanging by their harness for the entire time it takes the rescue team to get them out of there. A typical harness, even though they meet OSHA and ANSI standards for fall protection, will really squeeze the legs when a worker is suspended, and this can lead to a serious problem called suspension trauma (otherwise known as Ort …

In permit required confined spaces, workers are routinely entering areas which were not made with peoples’ comfort or safety in mind. They often have irregular entrances, tight spaces, and dangerous drops. Fall protection for confined space workers has been dramatically improving over the years, but even trained personnel don’t always know the correct configuration of equipment for each work site. To discuss fall safety in a confined space, we first need to define some of the common terms. …

Boom trucks, scissor lifts, and other Genie Lift work vehicles are everywhere these days. A question we receive regularly is how workers should hook up their fall safety equipment to the work platforms. Workers operating between 6 and 18 ft. above the closest obstacle, even if they are just passing through those heights, need to be wearing either complete fall restraint or a self-retracting lifeline (SRL). Because the close tether of a fall restraint system limits the work that can be a …

A customer recently wrote to ask us the following question: If my 6 ft. self-retracting lifeline (SRL) is pulled all the way to the end, is there any excess line/cable left on the reel if I take a fall? The answer is yes, there will be an extra turn or two left to insure that the force of a fall won’t tear the webbing or cable off the reel.  The length of an SRL is generally measured from bearing to bearing. In other words from the anchor point to the snap hook at the end of …

Every once in a while there is an innovation in fall protection that changes the face of worker safety. The Nano-Lok self-retracting lifeline from Capital Safety is that kind of device. If you had a choice of falling 15 feet or 20 inches, which would you prefer? We’ll go with the 20 inches, thanks. Take a look at our video showing the features of this new piece of fall protection. We think you’ll agree, the Nano-Lok is best thing to happen to fall protection in a long time. We al …