Posted By Dave Merchant Don't know the situation under Qatari law but in the UK you have no choice - an energy absorber is a legal requirement for all fall arrest lanyards as the peak impact load must be kept to below 6kN. Without an energy absorber even a small (1m) fall onto a webbing or rope lanyard will generate forces high enough to kill. If the argument is that there's not enough distance available in which to arrest the fall then you're using the wrong type of PPE. There are self-retracting lanyards which will arrest a fall within a few inches, or you could forget the lanyards altogether and use airbags or netting for the first few metres.

Posted By Garry Adams Hi Ross Iv just read your post and concur with both Dave's and your views regarding Fall Arrest Equipment, I work in the Offshore and allied Onshore Oil and Gas Industry in Aberdeen. Recent developments in the Middle East, Far East, and Monsoon Regions have opened up opportunities for U.K. Key Holder Facilitators and associated U.K. Management Teams to compete and secure high Value Contracts within the afore regions. Given that Dutch Royal Shell is the prime mover in the Construction of the Onshore GTL Peril Project in Las Raffan and the allied Offshore Installations in the North Field of the Persian Gulf, has the U.K. H&S model been adopted by the Gulf States ?. I was offered an Appointment to start June 1st of last year , however I declined the offer due to my commitments in the U.K., nevertheless, I have maintained an interest in the Project. Best regards, Garry ...

Posted By Garry Adams Ross I made a brief visit to Qatar in March of last year, went to the first turf cutting ceremony for the 16-18 Billion GTL Project when Prince Charles and the Crown Prince Bin Emm cant remember the rest of his name done the biz. Yes, U.K. Legislation my not apply to the Persian Gulf, However, the culmination of an Autocratic State and the Use age of Shell in-house rules and regulations may kick start a Stepchange Safety Culture. The peril Project is a massive Project ...there are 11 Tankers being Built world wide and 5 Tanks the size of the Albert Hall under Construction in the U.K. to hold the Product when it comes ashore. The Russians have been out maneuvered. Regards, Garry...

Posted By SCN Alot here depends upon at what height you can clip the harness onto and not directly what height you are working at. Harnesses out here and back home have up to 2metre lanyard plus usually a rip tear section of webbing in the pack. This is about 1.8 metres worth and is capable to reducing the force on the body of the typical UK construction worker (assumed to be 16 stone) to below 4 kN, though it obviously does not do this the moment the tear webbing deploys, it is a gradual reduction over the length of the 1.8 metres The pack of a UK manufactured lanyard should not deploy below 2 kN so is actually safe to be used a restraint harness also. If you are buying your harnesses in the middle east then you could be buying absolute crap and I have come across many with buckles that can be pulled apart with your bare hands so beware. Anyway until you have reached a reasonable height that you can secure the hook to that will offer you a deployment distance then you are peeing in the wind really. As far as I am aware (and its a long time since I was involved in Spanset) but deployment is affected by the angle of the operator falling. so unless you deploy feet first and vertical, your self righting ability is reduced and they are not designed for that but check with the guys in Middlewhich first. Happy days. Wouldnt bother with inertia reels out here unless you have very good maintenance agreement with local supplier (also suspect).

Posted By SCN Hi matey in response to some of your points. Anchor points need to be rated at 2 tonnes if they going to be used for fall arrest. So scaffold will always be a handy bit of kit for clipping onto. Hope you are on about real scaffold and not the Korean style that populates your end of the mid east. Don't see as much down here thanks God. Think all last years collapses in my last posting were Korean scaff related I would rather boil my head than rely upon inertia reels out here to be honest but as you say, you pays your money and takes your choice. Call me bigotted or whatever but if I shelled out on a decent uk manufactured inertia reel then I would want it servicing back in the UK by the manufacuterers (assuming no service agent I could trust out here) and if your money crunchers are anything like ours; then they wont be happy about paying that. As soon as you gap it to another company you can bet your ass that your reels will be being serviced by the dodgy mechanic who bodges everyone's 25 year old Chevy Caprices at the end of New Dehli street, Doha. Can't remember what else you asked so apologies for omissions

Posted By SCN final points dealing with the medical treatment of a suspended casualty is a specialised field and you wont find a first aider out here who will be fully competent to deal with the possible internal trauma or head injuries as he clouts his skull on the steel on the way down First point of call after you have popped his apples back down his throat is straight to the hospital. If you want a decent site nurse out here then recruit a UK ex EMT or Paramedic. Worth every dirham

Posted By SCN Interesting points there. The rate of 2.8t is based with the safety factor(I believe)on the force of our 100kg construction working falling in perfect free fall and the force that could be expected on the point of fixing which is approximately 29 kN When using a shock absorbed harness, it will deploy at 2 kN which is 0.2 ton gradually reducing the rate of descent over the 1.8m fall until you have a static load of 0.98 kN on the supporting structure Calculating loads on scaffold structures from the expected loads have to take into account slip loads but this is where it starts to get into engineering as the transmitted load should be spread across a number of fittings and take into account other factors such as deflection of the pole that you are attached to. Clipping onto a stable tube and fitting scaffold in the correct place with the correct shock absorber lanyard will not exert (as seen) anywhere near the same force as would be expected from an inertia reel which is another reason why I personally don't like inertia reels and thats besides the maintenance etc. Each to their own and happy times hey

Posted By SCN I am sure the maths only work when we are talking about similar decelerations. Freefall to standstill is different from freefall to deceleration to standstill. The shock loading is greater with the inertia reel as its a single moment The static load is of course the same once arrested Sat with an engineer who is nodding with me right now

Posted By Dave Merchant "...The shock loading is greater with the inertia reel as its a single moment" Ahh, but it's not. An EN360 reel has to incorporate an energy absorber which performs exactly the same as the ones in a lanyard (i.e. they both have to satisfy EN355). The physics is identical - if a 100kg mass falls 100cm the potential energy to dissipate is the same, no matter how you decide to handle the dissipation. You could use it to generate electricity if you wanted to (and some products actually do), but it's basic conservation of energy at play. People often mistakenly think that an EN360 device stops them 'instantly' because the initial free-fall is so short that the extra distance travelled during the deceleration phase is only a few inches at most. It's there and it's critical, but it's not as easy to see as the ripped webbing on a lanyard. The thing you have to remember is that the entire concept of fall arrest as defined in EN363 insists that there is _never_ more than a 6kN peak force - no matter what applies it and for how long. Based on that starting point, the strength of everything else is calculated. If someone sold a fall arrest block in the EU which managed to generate 6.0001kN for a microsecond they'd be prosecuted heavily (which is why you can't use a Z359 device over here).

Posted By Dave Merchant I'd say yes - but only if you have multiples so you get the 12kN capacity. Although IN THEORY a fall wouldn't break a 6kN anchor you have to put in at least a factor of safety of two, as couplers (however well they're fitted) are never tested in-situ to confirm they're as good as the BS says they should be.

Posted By CFT As SCN is the only contributor to 'touch' on restraint; would not the hierarchical level of protective harnessing/lanyard be appropriate to include here, and thus eliminate any requirement to consider the arrest of a consequential fall? CFT

Posted By CFT Dave Thank you for putting me in my place; I should have added 'when appropriate to do so' Take care CFT

Posted By Dave Merchant It's tricky. personally I'd say in those cases "rope access is better than fall arrest" but you have several major problems:- 1) Rope access requires more training and is technically complicated, so with respect requires workers to be using it regularly or they'll start making mistakes. 2) Rope access requires anchor points above the place of work, so when scaffolding a bridge it's great, but not when scaffolding the formwork before a bridge is built! 3) The argument "if you're hanging from ropes you can't fall very far" is certainly true, but it also means the workers need far more advanced rescue provision. 4) Without using more advanced techniques again, it's very easy to be restricted in your movement (you can't swing sideways if there's a scaff pole above you). The arguments against fall arrest are equally good, which is what makes the decision so tricky:- 1) The distance of a fall is often enough for the worker to impact on obstructions, and in many cases the injuries from those will be as bad as the injuries from hitting the floor. 2) The loads imposed on the scaffolding are higher than in rope access/restraint/positioning, and as we've discussed may not be safe to apply, especially during build. 3) Although fall arrest gives freedom of movement, it also requires places to attach to that are within reach of the worker. On some scaffold designs there are areas where this isn't possible, and it becomes tempting to use things like diagonals (which can be terrible). The idea of an all-purpose system of work really has to be dropped - it should be a per-job or per-face decision, based on the availability of anchor points, the exact design of the scaffold, etc. and be planned by someone who really understands the relative issues and merits of each option. There's at least 10 ways to do fall protection on a tube-n-fitting build and planning the job while only knowing 1 or 2 of them is verging on the incompetent.

Posted By Ross Hi Roger, Thanks for the comment. I would agree however you can't get them here. We have some seriously high exposure to guys working on these scaffolds that are 2, 3 & 4 meters. In many cases they have to remove or lower the guard rails because of the MEP works being installed get in the way. This said there are no suitable anchor points above head height as the ducting/piping etc will obviously not suffice, and none have been engineered in. Some of the suggestions/techniques/equipment mentioned above are are great if you are working in a country that has laws & regs you must abide by as well as availability of said equipment. However the only rules are the ones we lay down, which I admit are pretty stringent) however they are unable to source the right equipment. The contractor is a pain in arse, and have a fair amount of power in this country, so I am trying to find a cheap and easy solution that would reduce the risk sufficiently.

Posted By Garry Adams Ross These 3-4 meter Structures that you refer to, who is erecting them, what trade requested them, what type of Scaffold Structure are they...Tube and Fitting , Modular or Ali Tower. Garry...