Scaffolding Safety: Understanding the Importance and Use of Personal Protective Equipment

October 12, 2016

A diligent safety strategy, as applied to a scaffolding tower, evaluates every element on the frame, so we know that a competent person is continually checking the system for safety risks and potential hazards. This strategy is further bolstered by the employment and training of seasoned erection personnel, which means every possible eventuality is covered. It's still not quite enough, for this profession requires diligence, a near obsessive evaluation of potential risk factors.

Incorporating Personal Protective Equipment

The erection of this important working frame incorporates safety-oriented features that target at height risks, naturally, but those risk factors also extend to what's going on directly below the tower. Blame gravity for this secondary concern. Weighty tools and incautiously allocated building materials are forced downward by this Newtonian force, so safety helmets are the first order of the day. Head protection gear saves lives. Otherwise, a falling tool could impact an unwary worker, an inspecting architect or site manager, and cause a potentially fatal head fracture. The wearing of a certified helmet or hard hat is not optional. It must be worn by all workers and all visitors to the site.

A Part Two of Personal Protective Equipment

Workers make jokes about the blood-soaked safety videos they watch before they're allowed on scaffolding, but every one of these horrific scenarios has happened. The helmets stop concussions and fractures, so this section of the bloody video is offset, but there are other places where potentially nasty injuries can be incurred. Nails lay on the ground, so always wear approved foot gear, either thick boots or steel capped shoes, in this case. Similarly, no loose clothing or jewelry can be allowed, for projecting edges on the temporary erection will snag such wearables and cause a loss of balance.

Emphasizing the Importance of Scaffolding Safety

It should be remembered that not all personnel working on or around a scaffolding tower are seasoned platform navigators. They're painters and electricians, architects and site management executives, so scaffolding safety protects such personnel by taking care of hazard protection from the get-go. Head injuries are eliminated by taking this course of action, as are foot and other body-harmful incidents.

In accordance with all scaffolding regulations, visitors and working personnel are shielded from harm when working on level platforms, but it's possible to take these efforts even further when specialized work services are conducted on a perilously awkward location on the frame. In this latter case, all former personal protective aids are further reinforced by suiting up with a fall protection harness.

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