The Importance of Safety Lifeline

A lifeline is a fall protection safety device in the form of an open fence composed of wire and stanchions secured around the perimeter of an area to prevent accidental falls. It is commonly found on sailboats and construction sites, as well as other situations where dangerous falls can occur .

Do you know that safety lifelines on building and structures could form a vital part of your personal fall protection system? This system  must be used only with  the appropriate training and supervision in place.

As personal fall protection is the opposite of collective fall protection, such as guardrails, which are always active and don’t necessarily require the person to be trained in their use, training is key for personnel on the use of personal protective equipment/system. This is to ensure the required level of competence is achieved for the users to ensure they are used properly. Referring to the hierarchy of control, you would see that collective protection is placed above personal protection, but however there are always instances where safety lifelines can serve a purpose

Understanding Lifelines-

Essentially, safety lifelines comes in vertical and horizontal, temporal and permanent . The vertical lifelines are used in vertical operation ,while the horizontal lifeline are used horizontally.  Permanent lifeline are installed permanently on structures while the temporal lifeline are usually  removable after each service application. The Horizontal lifelines as the name implies, are comprised of a horizontal lifeline anchor system that must be used in conjunction with a specific fixed length  lanyard or SRL(Fall Arrest Blok)  and full body harness. It may sound simplistic, but safety lines can, and often do, save lives.

These safety lifelines  are often used on building roofs, construction site,Utility, telecom structures and other structures where it is deemed not reasonably practicable to have collective controls in place.

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https://oleams.com/vertical-fall-protection-systems/

https://oleams.com/fall-protection-system-kit/

When do you need a Lifeline system?

Have you imagined a situation where  you or your workers are working on a building without preinstalled collective edge protection such as guardrails or scaffolding? Should a fall occur, the safety line will either prevent or reduce the likelihood of a more serious injury, or even death.

After a fall, these lifeline systems has  internal shock absorber that  will absorb the load over a distance, which crucially reduces the dynamic force applied to the body. This  prevent the changes of damages that could be done to the internal organs of the worker  and in some cases leading to permanent disability or even  death.

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According to the hierarchy of control, it is important to always have it at the back of your mind  that a safety lifeline should not be your first choice for protection. The hierarchy of control’s emphasis on collective edge protection over personal, which  means you should consider putting permanent edge protection in place as mentioned earlier

Your fall protection plan is incomplete without a rescue plan in place. You must always have an adequate rescue plan with trained operatives in place when using safety lifelines in fall arrest situation.

Why is Safety Lifeline Inspection compulsory?

As with all forms of fall protection and equipment used for working at height, it is vital to ensure those systems are manufactured and tested to the correct standards, and that anyone using them has received the necessary training.

The standard guidance is to have your safety lines inspected, tested and certified at least once a year, and there are a multitude of reasons as to why they may no longer be fit for use. The system should also be inspected before each use.

Please NOTE- In the event  you have any doubts about the safety about any of your fall protection equipment, stop using it and report it immediately, then ensure it is replaced as soon as possible.

Should you need assistance with your fall protection plans and implementation, kindly visit us at www.oleams.com and our dedicated team of fall protection professional would be glad to provide you our best support in a cost effective , safe and professional manner