In HEJ’s first article from Australia this month, an Australian fall prevention specialist considers the implications of a recent revision of a key Code of Practice on the subject.
In an article first published in in The Australian Hospital Engineer, Carl Sachs, MD of Australian fall prevention specialist, Workplace Access & Safety, discusses the implications for those responsible for safe working at height of Safe Work Australia’s recent revision of the country’s model Code of Practice, Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces. The new ‘Code’ suggests that hospitals with roof anchors on single or double-storey buildings ‘face serious risk of falls’.
Safe Work Australia published a revision of the model Code of Practice, Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces (the “Code”) in March this year. Chief among the changes to the code are fall distances for harness use, along with safe access to the tops of ladders.
Fall distance for harness use explained
A worker wearing a harness attaches it to a shock absorber and lanyard system. During a fall, the shock absorber deploys and extends. This extended distance is added to the person’s height, lanyard length, and a safety factor, which allows for harness stretch. Under the revised Code, a person who falls can be expected to travel 6.5 metres before their fall is arrested (Figure 1). Effectively, that eliminates single-storey buildings and typical warehouses. Those around 6 to 8 metres high do not provide enough fall clearance if there are obstacles below like trucks or canopies (Figure 2).
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