HORIZONTAL LIFELINE SYSTEMS

A word from one of our safety professionals....."Regarding suspension in fall protection harnesses and horizontal-lifelines - It is recommended that an emergency response personnel be trained to recognize the risks of "SAFETY HARNESS SUSPENSION TRAUMA"

It may seem comfortable enough when you first experience suspension in a full body harness in fact you generally will have no feeling of stress or concern but unknowingly this can become a dangerous situation. Within minutes, you can start to experience problems called "SUSPENSION TRAUMA" you may have no feelings of stress at all, or you may start to experience symptoms such as feeling hot and possible confusion, also you could become unconscious. This can be a deadly situation for a worker who has just been arrested from a fall, research has confirmed that suspension in a safety harness after a fall can be as dangerous as the fall itself!

What can be done regarding this concern?

The problem can be addressed in two ways, one is to supply the worker a means to self rescue, this can be as simple as a technique using the existing equipment already supplied or add a small easy to deployed second piece of equipment to self-rescue. The second method is to have a trained group working within the same area and have been trained to preform a rescue - either way the problem should be addressed before work begins. If you need help in a rescue procedure you can call us and talk to our technical reps. it's not a big expensive. keep in mind there is some influence by external factors, areas that may not be as big a risk as others, take for example a ladder fall protection system, here you still have the ladder to allow the worker to self rescue, but areas such as - horizontal-lifelines - catwalks - bridge work - window washing - construction of steel - tower climbing - should be areas of concerns.. fall arrest protection has many parts, not just an ANCHOR - LANYARD & HARNESS."