How to Evaluate Fall Hazards
Identify Hazardous Work Areas
Awareness of work areas that might pose a fall hazard is also very important.
Watch Out! Hazards!
Work areas change regularly, so never assume that a work area that is safe today will be safe tomorrow. Work area factors that could increase the risk of falls include:
- Holes in walking-working surfaces that they could step into or fall through.
- Elevated walking-working surfaces above a lower level that are not properly guarded at:
- any height above dangerous equipment,
- four feet or higher in general industry, and
- six feet or higher in construction.
- Skylights and smoke domes that workers could step into or fall through.
- Wall openings such as those for windows or doors that workers could fall through.
- Trenches and other excavations that workers could fall into.
- Walking-working surfaces from which workers could fall onto dangerous equipment.
- Hoist areas where guardrails have been removed to receive materials.
- Sides and edges of walking-working surfaces such as established floors, mezzanines, balconies, and walkways that are four feet or more above a lower level and not protected by guardrails at least 39 inches high.
- Ramps and runways that are not protected by guardrails at least 39 inches high.
- Leading edges - edges of floors, roofs, and decks - that change location as additional sections are added.
- Wells, pits, or shafts not protected with guardrails, fences, barricades, or covers.
A 51-year-old painting contractor at a residential apartment complex stepped onto a unsecured third-floor balcony, causing him to fall 21 feet onto the concrete below. As he lay injured, the balcony slid off its wall mount and landed on top of him. He died from his injuries.
An investigation by OSHA determined neither the contractor or subcontractor in this case had placed the required warning sign to alert the worker of the danger, and they had not tested the balcony's structural integrity or strength.
Hazard warning signs must be displayed and balconies, exits and high-level platforms must be blocked where practical during construction to prevent workers falling from heights or into active construction zones.
OSHA recommended the contractor and subcontractor pay substantial penalties.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
3-4. Elevated walking-working surfaces in construction must be guarded if they are _____.
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