SAFETY
BEFORE FALL
THE
When it comes to fall protection PPE, is compliance with legal standards enough? Alfonso Fernandez explains why it pays to go the extra mile when protecting your employees
P
ersonal protective equipment (PPE) standards make a vital contribution to safety at work, by legally enforcing a reasonable level of quality and capability for all products. However, they do have limitations. For example, can they cover every possible workplace scenario, keep up with rapid changes taking place in industry, and adapt quickly enough to take recent PPE innovations into account? To understand these issues, we should first consider the process for certification. All fall protection PPE needs to be legally certified. New products are independently tested and quality-checked by an accredited third party known as a ‘notified body’. Te
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standards against which PPE is assessed are decided, in the case of fall protection, by a committee of specialists in this area. Every five years, the committee decides whether to continue with the same certification standards for another five years or to update them. In practice, a standard typically lasts for ten years. Some standards may stay in place for 15 or 20 years. In that time, there is scope for many things to change in the workplace and the PPE market.
When updated standards are
introduced, employers are allowed to continue using older PPE that was bought when previous standards applied, provided they follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Tey will still be complying with legislation, but they should think carefully about whether a newer product will be safer for their teams. While legal standards may change
slowly or not at all, constant developments and breakthroughs are being made by fall protection PPE manufacturers in terms of new technologies, materials and designs. In addition to improving safety, these advances bring practical and productivity advantages. To benefit from these, and to maintain safety as their highest priority, buyers should not always wait for the law to change before upgrading their PPE. At all times, they should seek to be more than just compliant.
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