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Posted By G Robertson
Good afternoon OSH Forum.
Can anyone confirm that the HSE have said a handrail is an appropriate point to which a safety harness can be attached?
I have a situation where there is a gap on an overhead crane gantry. There is a design change raised to enable a permanent guardrail to be installed, however as an interim measure I am asking that all maintenance staff use a safety harness if they transit this area, can the guardrail be used as an attachment point?
Regards in advance.
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Posted By Philip McAleenan
A handrail is not a suitable attachment point. Falls exert tremendous stress on anchor points. Without knowing what the stress capacity of a handrail is (or indeed any other point not specifically designed to be load-bearing) any excessive stress placed on them may result in failure as well as compromising their continued normal functioning.
regards, Philip
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Posted By William
it would need to support 5 times the body weight of the person falling due to the shock loading when a fall occurs. It would also need to be regularly inspected to ensure it can cope with this which i personally think would be every 6 months as it would come under LOLER and the requirements of inspection for equipment to lift people.
On the other hand though would this be reasonably practicable to do?
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Posted By G Robertson
A colleague of mine who is a senior manager and who previously worked as a safety practitioner has mentioned that the HSE issued a report some time ago to say that the use of a handrail would be an acceptable point at which to attach a safety harness.
Can any one remember this?
I take your point about stat testing of an attachment point to which a safety harness would be attached.
In light of not being able to be certain that the guardrail would be able to withstand such a sudden load in the event of a fall, and the serious consequences should it fail, I tend to agree with the advice offered and will advise the team leader accordingly.
Perhaps another method can be found.
Please continue to comment if you have any further ideas.
Thank you.
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Posted By David AB Thomas
As a starting point, I would assume that a handrail is not a suitable anchor for fall arrest.
Clause 16.2.1 of BS8437 states, "Anchors should be unquestionably reliable. It is essential that they have an adequate margin of strength and stability to withstand the dynamic and static forces that could be applied to them in service. A safety factor of 2.0 should be applied when calculating the required static strength of an anchor device in a personal fall protection system. Thus, for a personal fall protection system that could be called upon to arrest a fall, for single person use an anchor device with a minimum static strength of 12 kN should normally be used ...".
You may also want to have a look at the minimum static strength requirment in BS EN 795.
Clause 16.4.1 of BS 8437 covers the anchor requirements for work reatraint - a handrail may well be suitable.
Anchor points are not subject to LOLER (unless used for rope access) - although PUWER may apply.
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Posted By peter gotch 1
Following on from previous comment, HSE report SIR15 [out of print] indicates that a guard-rail intended to prevent someone falling from a roof with a pitch of less than 10 degrees should be able to withstand a dynamic load of 0.75kN [1.25kN for pitched roofs].
Loading in a fall arrest situation will be substantially higher than falling against a guard-rail, and with the forces in a different direction to that for which guard-rail and supporting structure is generally designed.
Regards, Peter
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Posted By David AB Thomas
SIR15 is 'time expired'. I'd recommend looking at BS EN 13374; although this specifies requirements for energy absorption, in Joules. The characteristic load due to the impact load arising from fall arrest is usually considerd to be 6kN (although some energy absorbers will perform better than this).
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Posted By Andrew W
Depends if it is being used for fall restraint or fall arrest. If it is being used in a restraint scenario as an anchor to prevent personnel reaching an edge where they can fall then it needs to be able to hold a persons body weight (National ave 16 stone last I heard)But if it is being used as part of a fall arrest scenario then no as it must be able to withstand 20Kn loading (2 tonnes)and tested to relevant BS.
Andy
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Posted By peter gotch
David.
Fascinated to know what 'time expired' means.
I can still download it from Technical Indexes and HSE have not come up with a replacement [nor could they in a trial where this was a key standard cited as part of the defence evidence]
Incidentally, the equivalent OSHA standard in the US is
1926.451(g)(4)(vii)
Each toprail or equivalent member of a guardrail system shall be capable of withstanding, without failure, a force applied in any downward or horizontal direction at any point along its top edge of at least 100 pounds (445 n) for guardrail systems installed on single-point adjustable suspension scaffolds or two-point adjustable suspension scaffolds, and at least 200 pounds (890 n) for guardrail systems installed on all other scaffolds.
So 0.7kN compares relatively closely with 0.89KN across the Pond, especially if you consider relative population weights.
Regards, Peter
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