Our Safety Trainers are often asked questions like, "Who can inspect fall protection equipment" and "How often should you inspect a Safety Harness?"

A proper fall protection course will surely have taught its learners how to don a harness and more importantly, that it, and the rest of their equipment, must be inspected prior each use as well as how to perform these pre-use inspections.  The course may have even mentioned that the equipment must also be inspected annually by a ‘competent’ person.

This ‘competent inspector’ is often a source of great panic as companies scramble to find a course that gives them what they think they want insofar as ‘qualifications’ go.  Many times our training department gets asked if we offer a competent inspector course for fall arrest gear to which we normally respond with a question of our own: “if someone is potentially relying on this gear to arrest a fall and save their life, who should be more competent than them to inspect it?”

Especially given that the exact requirement as specified in manufacturer manuals for fall arrest equipment far and wide is that the equipment be inspected by a competent person other than its principle user, it would seem that the manufacturers are on the same page.  The manufacturers themselves are not in the habit of bestowing some special title on someone that certifies them as being a special inspector that is somehow more qualified than the users of the equipment.  They also agree that whosoever may need this equipment to save their lives should surely be also be fully capable of inspecting it. That is why the Northern Strands Fall Protection course has hands on inspection of harnesses as a key focus of the training.

In this part of the course learners are led through what to look for on a harness, what is acceptable and what is not, and ways of preventing that sort of damage from happening in the first place.  Students are guided on how to look through harnesses to ensure that the buckles, D-Rings, grommets and other hardware are not deformed, cracked, corroded, nicked, gouged or otherwise damaged. They are shown how to assess the webbing to ensure that there are no burns/melting, abrasion, cut fibres, UV-damage or broken stitches. The course also teaches learners how to verify that the tags on the harness are attached and legible, as well as how to check to see if the equipment has been used to arrest a fall, as fall arrest equipment is only rated for one save.

So essentially every company that uses fall arrest and employs trained, competent fall arrest users can take care of itself, but as we all know this is not always the case. One such example is when companies do not assign individual harnesses to their personnel, and instead crews will share a handful of harnesses.  In situations like these, all of the competent users at the company are also all the principle users of the equipment, so how could one possibly satisfy the manufacturer’s the annual inspection requirements? Well, in cases like this, Northern Strands has you covered as well with our fall protection inspection service.  Simply drop off all of the gear you want inspected and let our in-house, competent fall arrest users take care of it for you.

If you ever have any doubts about inspecting your fall protection equipment, call Northern Strands and we can make arrangements to either teach you how to do it properly yourself, or we can inspect it for you.

For Fall Arrest Training or Harness Inspections:

Call 306-242-7073

Email: training@northernstrands.com 

website: https://www.northernstrands.com/training.aspx

It goes without saying that any training is (generally) better than no training whatsoever, but does online fall arrest training really count as far as the Regulations are concerned?

 Interestingly enough, the Regulations go so far as to define the term ‘train’ which means  “…to give information and explanation to a worker with respect to a particular subject-matter and require a practical demonstration that the worker has acquired knowledge or skill related to the subject-matter…”

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Another issue users face is deciding whether they should be completing “Fall Arrest Training” or “Fall Protection Training?”  Unfortunately there is no crystal-clear answer to this question, but the deciding factor will ultimately be based on the individual requirements of different company policies. 

As you may already know, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) should always be considered the last line of defense against workplace hazards, and should the hazards happen to involve falling, there are many other ways to better protect yourself than using a Personal Fall Arrest System.  Northern Strands Fall Arrest Training (despite its name) explains the regulatory requirements of the other, better forms of fall protection so that users are more suitably informed on how to protect themselves from falling.

If you’re considering online training and your employees will be working in the province of Saskatchewan contact us, to make sure that the training will meet the requirements of the provincial regulations. We also do on-site training so we can make it more convenient for those times when it isn’t actually practical to send an entire crew to Saskatoon to take part in one of our regularly scheduled courses.

One of the most asked questions in Fall Arrest Training is, "Do my fall arrest harness straps need to be tight?".   Yes, it is extremely important that your harness straps be tight and your harness fit properly.  A degloving injury is one type of injury that can result from improper fitting of a fall arrest harness.   Which is an extremely painful injury. 

How do you know if your harness leg straps are fitted properly?  One method is the Hand/Fist Test.

To determine if your fall arrest harness leg straps are adjusted properly, follow these basic steps:
1. Make your hand flat.
2. Insert your hand between your leg and the leg strap until the strap is across your wrist.
3. Make your hand into a fist.
4. Try to pull your fist in between the leg strap and your leg.

Did fist make it through? If so your leg straps need to be tightened until you cannot pull your fist out.  If you weren’t able to complete step 2 above then your leg straps are actually too tight.  As you may know, properly fitting the full body harness leg straps is just one small part of using fall arrest equipment.

To receive more information on proper fall arrest harness fitting, fall arrest equipment or fall protection training please contact the Northern Strands Safety Training Division at 306-242-7073, by email training@northernstrands.com or visit our website http://www.northernstrands.com/training.aspx 

Attached is our recently completed Safety Training Brochure.   This brochure contains information on safety training courses for the construction, mining and emergency responder industries.

Northern Strands Safety Training Brochure.pdf (2.34 mb) 

In addition to training, Northern Strands Engineered Fall Protection Division offers a variety of fall protection systems, solutions and services. Custom-engineered solutions can be designed to suit specific requirements.   For more information you can call 306-242-7073, email lifelines@northernstrands.com or visit our website http://www.northernstrands.com/fall-protection.aspx

Northern Strands is proudly Saskatoon, Saskatchewan owned and operated.

If your employee's are using Fall Protection equipment, they need Fall Arrest Training.   The Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association website states:

"If a worker at a worksite can fall 3 metres or more and is not protected by guardrails, the employer must develop a Fall Protection Plan that specifies:

• The fall hazard
• The fall protection to be used (including worker training)
• Procedures used to assemble, maintain, inspect, use, and disassemble the fall protection system
• Worker rescue procedures
• That the Fall Protection Plan is available before the work begins"

Northern Strands runs regular Fall Arrest Training courses throughout Saskatoon and Saskatchewan.

Click here for more information, http://www.northernstrands.com/fall-arrest.aspx