Safety Blog

Protecta Lanyard Recall - Information and Product Substitution

2011-12-06T20:00:54+00:00

Some of the Protecta brand double leg lanayards are being recalled due to a problem with the snap hook mechanism. The recall applies to lanyards that were manufactured between July 2010 and October 31, 2011. The manufacture date is marked on the product label of each lanyard. The official documents for the recall can be found below.

Replacement Table

Here is a short list of the items that are being recalled. If you need a quick replacement of the lanyard we have listed the Guardian equivelant of the Protecta brand. These may be purchase through our web site. If you are returning your Protecta lanyard, please reference the recall documents below.

Description	Protecta P/N	Guardian P/N
Double Leg Internal Stretch Lanyard with snaphooks	1340141	G01296
Double Leg Internal Stretch Lanyard with rebar hooks	1340161	G01298
Double leg internal shock lanyard with snaphooks	1340240	G11202
Double leg Internal shock lanyard with rebar hooks	1340250	G11203

If you have any questions about replacement lanyard, please feel free to contact us directly.

Video

This video illustrates the problem with the Protecta lanyards and why they are being recalled.

Documents

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

Safety on the Set!! Theatrical Guardrail

2011-12-05T21:10:30+00:00

This safety guardrail was installed on the set of the production of The Conduct of Life at Texas A&M University. The railing was mounted on the stage to prevent the performers from falling over the edge. The railing performed both an aesthetic and functional purpose. Justin M., the Technical Director, was kind enough to send us these pictures and explain the project:

Our Fall production was The Conduct of Life by Maria Irene Fornes. Scenic Designer Prof. Autum C. wanted the upper balcony area to look like an abandoned warehouse. Since the platform was 7' tall, a safety rail was required. We chose to incorporate the railing by using schedule 40 pipe and Kee Klamps. The pipe was painted safety yellow and then assembled with the Kee Klamps. The assembly looked too bright and new so we wiped the whole thing down with watery black paint to dirty it up. Thanks for great products and great customer service.

It's good to see that set design and safety can be combined! Safety is often overlooked in the theatre industry, it's good to see that some technical directors are taking the necessary iniative to help everyone reamin safe while performing. Kudos ot Justin and Autum!

We offer a number of solutions for the theater industry, including guardrail and lifeline systems. If you need help providing a safe working area in your theater please contact us and our sales engineers will help connect you with the appropriate solution.

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

Want Safety Conscious Employees? Start Young

2011-11-30T04:14:09+00:00

Yes! That's a stuffed monkey in a fall protection harness! I got this picture from a friend over the Thanksgiving holiday and it got me thinking that the best way to help create safety conscious employees is to emphasize safety from a young age.

Believe me, I'm not suggesting that we start installing harnesses on playground equipment or get crazy about the fact that kids climb trees, but I am saying that some simple reinforcement at a young age can reap great rewards for creating a safer work environment.

Here are a few thoughts about emphasizing work safety with children:

Model it! This is really the most important thing isn't it? Practice what your preach. Monkey see, monkey do. If kids see parents and other role models with blatant disregard for their own safety, will they be led to to practice safety themselves? Maybe, but not likely!
Integrate Work Safety into Play - Kids love dress up. Make sure to pick up some extra personal protection equipment for your kids. They'll love wearing hard hats, safety goggles, you name it! My kids have little log cabin that they climb on in the back yard. Sometimes they play roofer and tie themselves off while banging on the plastic roof!
Observe and Comment - When you pass a work site or read a kids book, ask you kids to tell you if they are working safe or not. This will emphasize the importance of working safely as a part of how they view the environment.
Practice - This is right up there with modeling. When building a project with your kids make sure they are wearing the proper safety gear. Kid sized work gloves and safety goggles are not always easy to find a the local home store, but the Internet is your friend. Remember to buy in bulk...they'll go through them faster than you do!
Encourage Leadership - By leadership I mean the ability to "go against the flow." I am sure that a lot of unsafe working conditions are caused by the simple fact that people just do what others are doing instead of thinking "what should I be doing?" This kind of leadership has nothing to do with personality, it has everything to do with "making sure that your kids don't jump off a bridge just because their friends do."

These are just a few ideas to emphasize a safe work environment with children. Please share your own thoughts and comments below.

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

Rooftop Parapet Railing for Rochester ATCT [Case Study]

2011-11-29T21:40:18+00:00

Parapet railings can be a great solution for providing perimeter fall protection on a rooftop. Parapet railings are appropriate when penetration of the parapet is acceptable. When no penetration can be made or no parapet exists, we recommend our KeeGaurd non-penetrating roof railing. Parapet railings can provide continuous fall protection and can be less expensive than non-penetrating solutions.

One of our customer recently installed a parapet railing on the top of the building adjoining the Rochester air traffic control tower. We had the chance to visit the site and take some pictures of the installation.

The parapet railing can be seen along the top of the shorter building that is next to the main tower. This railing provides a perimeter roof railing that meets and exceeds the OSHA requirements for guardrail. Railings constructed with pipe fittings are great for airports because they do not require heavy machinery or dangerous materials to install. This makes installation safer and more security conscious.

The parapet railing is attached to the existing parapet with 62-8 base flanges.

Sealant is used underneath the flange to prevent leaks.

This railing is a great example of an offset railing that uses 45-8 pipe railing fittings to make the railing as continuous as possible. A pipe cap tops off the upright to keep water from entering the upright.

Couplings are used to join long sections of the parapet pipe railing together.

Elbow fittings are used at the corner and in various other jogs in the roof footprint.

Obtuse or acute angles in the roof can be navigated with other pipe fittings that are specially designed to allow for any angle.

This railing was powder coated to match other trim already on the building. Parapet railings can be powder coated in any RAL color to ensure that the railing blends in with the surrounding architecture. In the case of this installation, the customer chose not to powder coat the pipe fittings. This could have been done to make the entire railing a single color.

A parapet railing designed with our components can navigate the most demanding roof layouts. Contact our sales team to find out if a parapet railing is the best solution your rooftop fall protection needs.

See more pictures of this railing installation here.

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

It won’t happen to me? Think again about ladder safety!

2011-11-15T16:37:44+00:00

Video can be such a pain! Especially when it catches you ignoring a safety regulation. Unfortunately we all know that the "It won't happen to me!" mindset keeps many people from practicing the proper safety procedures. Perhaps on the statistical levels, people often do dangerous things without being hurt, but who wants to be the exception! Don't be the exception in the statistic? Practice the proper tie off procedures when working at heights!

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

OSHA Animated Video for Fall Protection

2011-11-15T16:29:48+00:00

OSHA is making their way into the heart of the You Tube Generation with a series of new animated safety videos. The video above focuses on the dangers of the leading edge and will hopefully we used to help people understand the real dangers of working at heights.

Find out more about these animated safety videos on the OSHA website.

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

Ventilation Shaft Guardrail

2011-11-03T17:52:09+00:00

In this installation, KeeGuard non-penetrating rooftop railing was used to protect ventilation shafts on the roof of a building. These shafts are considered by safety regulations to be holes in the roof and must be protected with the proper guardrail. KeeGuard made it easy to protect the perimeter of the shaft without having to penetrate the roof or drill into the shaft.

KeeGuard can help you solve complicated fall protection problems on the roof. KeeGuard provides guardrail that can be placed around obstacles and hazards on the roof surface without penetrating the protective membrane. Ask our Sales Engineers how KeeGuard can help solve your rooftop safety problem.

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

Free Fall Protection Videos available from OSHA

2011-11-01T20:32:43+00:00

OSHA has many safety videos that are available from their library for free. If you are an OSHA trainer you can request these videos via a PDF form available on the OSHA web site. Here is a listing of the videos that are available for the Fall Protection category. Take advantage of these resources if you can: it's your tax dollars at work.

Fall Protection
See also Housekeeping; Walking and Working Surfaces

VT01557
VT01615
VT01487
VT01289
VT01288
VT01394
DVD031
VT01413
VT01515
VT01749
VT01556
VT01295
VT01537
DVD009
VT01511

Construction fall protection: Get arrested!
Construction fall protection: Get arrested! - Spanish
Construction fall protection: Hook�
Fall free: Employer training
Fall free: Toolbox talk
Fall prevention: Elevated work surfaces
Fall protection: personal fall arrest system
Fall protection for construction: Heightened awareness
Fall protection for construction: Heightened awareness - Spanish
Fall protection for ironworkers
Fall protection: Construction
Fall protection: Taking control
Fall protection: The basics
Fall protection: The Right Connection
How far is that fall?

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

Access a Mezzanine Safely: Mezzanine Gates and Platform Gates

2011-10-10T20:18:35+00:00

Need to access a mezzanine or platform safely? Mezzanine and platform gates can help you gain access to that crucial space in a safe and efficient way. Mezzanine gates allow you to easily fork lift materials from a lower level onto a higher platform. Mezzanine gates can be manual, spring loaded or automated. There are three primary styles of mezzanine gates:

Pallet Gates - these spring loaded gates push open and quickly allow pallets to be loaded onto a mezzanine.

Horizontal Mezzanine Gates - these gates slide open to the side. These are best used when a large amount of overhead clearance is required. Horizontal mezzanine gates can be opened manually or through an electric automation system.

Vertical Mezzanine Gates - Vertical gates open up and down to allow materials to be loaded on and off the mezzanine.

Get complete details on the Mezzanine and Platform Gate page.

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

Rooftop Fall Protection Comparison: Solution Pros & Cons

2011-10-06T16:13:34+00:00

Overview

The scope of this document is to give you a general outline of the different pros and cons of the fall protection systems that we offer.�

There are two principal forms of fall protection covered in this document: Passive and Active.�

Passive fall protection is mostly closely aligned with guardrail.� Guardrail requires minimal inspection and virtually no training. �Simply put, passive fall protection requires no action from the rooftop worker once the system is installed.�
Active fall protection is typically aligned with horizontal lifelines and anchor points.� It requires training, maintenance, inspection, and management on an on-going basis.� Most importantly, it requires action from the user each time it is used.

For a complete list of the different methods of fall protection see this page on our web site: What is the difference between different types of fall protection?

Pricing information is based upon estimated pricing of typical systems as of September 2011, our assumption is that price changes affect all systems equally.

skip to downloadable version

Non-Penetrating Rooftop Guardrails

The best example of non-penetrating rooftop guardrail is the KeeGuard Rooftop Guardrail system.� It is a counter-balanced system that is easy to install and can be adapted to just about any rooftop obstacle.� Easily assembled by a two-man crew, it can protect large sections of roof perimeter or provide smaller sections of spot protection.

Costs

Installation Costs	Starts at $50.00 / linear foot� + 16 man hours for ever 600’ linear feet
Training Costs	No training required

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Easy to install, no specialized training is required Can easily be modified on site � no welding required No ongoing maintenance or training is required Versitile - Can be built around existing rooftop obstacles such as HVAC units and roofs of varying heights Durable � 100% galvanized system Tested for OSHA compliance Architectural “look and feel”	Initial product cost is higher than other systems

Parapet Guardrail

Parapet guardrails are permanent guardrails that are attached directly to the side or top of a roof parapet.� Parapet guardrails are less expensive than non-penetrating guardrail but will require more labor costs and a suitable parapet to install. �

Costs

Installation Costs	$28.00 / linear foot + 32 man hours for every 600 linear feet
Training Costs	No training required

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Lower linear foot cost than a counter-balanced solution. Easy to install, attaches directly to the parapet, avoiding penetration of the roof membrane. No ongoing training is required Can be built around existing rooftop obstacles such as HVAC units and roofs of varying heights	Suitable parapet is required Railing has to be placed on parapet, making it more visible from below. Higher installation costs Special labor is required in most cases for proper sealing of penetrations Penetrations may need to be maintained

Horizontal Lifeline

Horizontal lifeline systems are built along a particular path of the rooftop.� The rooftop worker ties off to the system through the use of a harness and lanyard.� Horizontal lifelines must be installed and maintained by specialized personnel.� OSHA also requires all employees using the system to undergo competent person training for each system. ��Rescue plans and other safety management overheads are involved in all active fall protection systems.

Costs

Installation Costs	$40.00 / linear foot (varies greatly by location and configuration) $100-200 equipment cost per person
Training Costs	Competent person training, system training

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Lower cost of product than most guardrail solutions Not visible from the ground Can be used in some circumstance where passive solutions will not work Allows for more mobility around a roof than standard anchor points	Must be installed by certified installers Ongoing maintenance OSHA competent person training required by all employees using the system Inspection required before every use Requires the employee to wear fall protection equipment and properly tie off to the system. Ongoing purchase of PPE (harnesses, lanyards, etc.) Requires valid rescue plan Requires attention from management to document and all of the above and validate that the safety plan is being followed. Limits productivity to workers

Pros

Cons

Lower cost of product than most guardrail solutions
Not visible from the ground
Can be used in some circumstance where passive solutions will not work
Allows for more mobility around a roof than standard anchor points

Must be installed by certified installers
Ongoing maintenance
OSHA competent person training required by all employees using the system
Inspection required before every use
Requires the employee to wear fall protection equipment and properly tie off to the system.
Ongoing purchase of PPE (harnesses, lanyards, etc.)
Requires valid rescue plan
Requires attention from management to document and all of the above and validate that the safety plan is being followed.
Limits productivity to workers

Non-Penetrating Tie Off Anchor Points

Solutions such as the Kee Safety Weightanka and the Guardian Hammer fit into this category of portable, non-penetrating tie off points.� These products allow workers to tie off in a particular location, but gives them the freedom to move the system when it is needed elsewhere.� ��

Costs

Installation Costs	$3-4,000 for unit and one persons equipment $100/linear foot (assuming a unit can protect 30 feet)
Training Costs	Competent person training, system training

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Systems are portable and can be moved Relatively low cost of entry Not visible from the ground Does not penetrate the roof	OSHA competent person training required by all employees using the system Inspection required before every use Requires the employee to wear fall protection equipment and properly tie off to the system. Ongoing purchase of PPE (harnesses, lanyards, etc.) Requires valid rescue plan Higher risk of incorrect use. Requires attention from management to document and all of the above and validate that the safety plan is being followed. Limits productivity to workers Adds additional work time to each job for setting up and tearing down the anchor point. Allows limited access before needing to be repositioned.

Pros

Cons

Systems are portable and can be moved
Relatively low cost of entry
Not visible from the ground
Does not penetrate the roof

OSHA competent person training required by all employees using the system
Inspection required before every use
Requires the employee to wear fall protection equipment and properly tie off to the system.
Ongoing purchase of PPE (harnesses, lanyards, etc.)
Requires valid rescue plan
Higher risk of incorrect use.
Requires attention from management to document and all of the above and validate that the safety plan is being followed.
Limits productivity to workers
Adds additional work time to each job for setting up and tearing down the anchor point.
Allows limited access before needing to be repositioned.

Download this Guide

This guide is available as a downloadable PDF.

For additional reading on the difference in short-term and long-term costs between these two solutions, please see this series of posts on our web site:

Seven Ways to Save on Safety (Part 1)
Seven Ways to Save on Safety (Part 2)
Seven Ways to Save on Safety (Part 3)

This post contributed by:

Chris Pollock

Simplified Safety / General Manager

Email: chris@simplifiedsafety.com

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Chris enjoys investigating the lastest safety products.

This post contributed by:

Dan Wampler

Simplified Safety / Sales Engineer

Email: dan@simplifiedsafety.com

Phone: 1.866.527.2275

Website: http://www.simplifiedsafety.com/

Dan is our on site safety genius. He reads OSHA manuals for fun. Kidding aside, Dan's experience in the safety industry will be an asset to you and your company as you evaluate safety products and services. He likes receiving calls on his new iPhone, so give him a ring to talk about safety standards, equipment and services.