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Occupational Health & Safety: There is a long-standing design flaw in many personal fall arrest harnesses. This design is used by several major manufacturers of harnesses for fall arrest and by at least one manufacturer of mountaineering harnesses.
3 comments:
Philip Rheinheimer
said...
This is a pretty major flaw although thankfully it seems that even when fastened incorrectly the harness still holds. Manufacturers should definitely be addressing this issue and marking the buckles more clearly. The one thing I noticed from the pictures is that it should be pretty obvious to the user that the leg strap is run incorrectly since the end that you pull ends up under the longer run. To me this would be a pretty clear indication that something is not right just because that doesn't make sense from a functionality standpoint. Why would the end you have to pull to tighten the harness be underneath the leg strap? But I guess it's still easy enough to overlook that it needs to be addressed.
Yes, this is a flaw in the design, but the only person who should be using such a device should be a person who is competent and qualified to properly wear the harness.
A harness can be installed incorrectly just as easily as ear protection can be improperly inserted. Its just a matter of knowing how to use the PPE you are required to use, and the training should be provided by the employer.
I think the SOD should provide all Design and Production students a moderate level of training in fall arrest systems.
This is a pretty scary design flaw, but with most equipment things are only as safe as the operator allows them to be. Anything can be dangerous and potentially life threatening, no matter how well it's designed, because of operator error. Yeas, this design makes screwing up a bit easier, but if the person wearing the harness takes the extra second to double check their harness, things should be fine.The harness companies should probably mark the straps with safety warnings, but I don't think any sort of major redesign is necessary.
3 comments:
This is a pretty major flaw although thankfully it seems that even when fastened incorrectly the harness still holds. Manufacturers should definitely be addressing this issue and marking the buckles more clearly. The one thing I noticed from the pictures is that it should be pretty obvious to the user that the leg strap is run incorrectly since the end that you pull ends up under the longer run. To me this would be a pretty clear indication that something is not right just because that doesn't make sense from a functionality standpoint. Why would the end you have to pull to tighten the harness be underneath the leg strap? But I guess it's still easy enough to overlook that it needs to be addressed.
Yes, this is a flaw in the design, but the only person who should be using such a device should be a person who is competent and qualified to properly wear the harness.
A harness can be installed incorrectly just as easily as ear protection can be improperly inserted. Its just a matter of knowing how to use the PPE you are required to use, and the training should be provided by the employer.
I think the SOD should provide all Design and Production students a moderate level of training in fall arrest systems.
This is a pretty scary design flaw, but with most equipment things are only as safe as the operator allows them to be. Anything can be dangerous and potentially life threatening, no matter how well it's designed, because of operator error. Yeas, this design makes screwing up a bit easier, but if the person wearing the harness takes the extra second to double check their harness, things should be fine.The harness companies should probably mark the straps with safety warnings, but I don't think any sort of major redesign is necessary.
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