Fall Protection in Residential Construction - Essay Example

However, a number of Federal rules have recently been enacted to protect residential construction workers from falls as well as limit the occurrence of such accidents. The OSHA fall protection in residential construction requirements particularly describes a number of methods that can be used by residential construction employers to protect their workers against fall related injuries and deaths during the construction process. Despite providing a number of potential benefits including preventing loss of lives due to fall related accidents, fall protection in residential also comes with a number of challenges and limitations.

This paper critically discusses fall protection in residential construction with particular focus to the examples advantages, disadvantages and consequences of the various fall protection regulations for residential construction. Fall Protection Standards and Regulations There are a number of both Federal and state regulations that have been primarily designed to provide technical measures aimed at reducing the number of fall related accidents and fatalities. Prior to the issuance of the new directive, OSHA’s interim fall protection compliance regulations provided most of the fall protection guidelines used in residential construction. . One of the new compliance directives that were recently issued by OSHA is the requirement that all employees working at heights of six feet or higher must use safety nets, guardrails and fall arrest systems as part of their protection against fall related accidents.

According to the new OSHA directive, fall arrest systems include wearing a full body harness, lanyard, deceleration device and an anchor point. The use of scaffold protects the workers from the falling related accidents during construction. The scaffold used in any construction must be unbending and appropriate in the weight it carries to prevent construction materials and workers from falling. The scaffold is advantageous for it is only in rare cases where it usually falls. These scaffolds are on the other hand of a disadvantage nature especially in cases of overload, where it has caused death of workers as a result of the falling materials.

Well-fixed ladders and other important personal fall protection systems protect workers from falling while constructing buildings. The use of ladders enhances the workers can move to very high heights of the buildings without falling. The use of ladder is a technical means of construction for it requires a correct ladder for any chosen task. It on the other requires a capable person both visually thus making the ladder use disadvantageous. It is preferred in most cases because it a cheaper protection measure from falling.

Additionally, depending of the circumstances, alternatives such as warning lines or restraint systems are often part of OSHA requirements for fall protection in residential construction. Nevertheless, OSHA can exempt construction employees from the full requirements of fall protection regulations if they are able to document and prove