Fall protection safety measures are an important part of many workplaces. From manufacturing plants to large warehouses with towering shelves full of supplies, making sure that the proper fall protection guidelines are followed protects not only your workers, but also your inventory and the future of your company.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor, spends hours preparing the guidelines and the regulations that help protect workers across the country. From fall protection to guidelines for lifting chains, lifting equipment, lifting gear, and other kinds of lifting products, OSHA regulations lay out step by step plans to make sure that workers are as safe as possible. In addition to the guidelines, however, OSHA and other regulating bodies also outline a schedule for training workers and making sure that everyone is also well versed in how to stay safe and react to emergency situations.
Consider some of these facts and figures about how safety guidelines can help protect workers, property, and the future of companies across America:

• During the testing of all fall arrest systems, a test weight of 300 pounds, plus or minus 5 pounds, should be used, according to OSHA.
• Safety nets can be used to decrease the fall exposure when working where temporary scaffolds and floors and are not used and the fall distance is greater than 25 feet.
• General fall arrest, such as nets, and personal fall arrest, such as lifelines, are the two major types of fall arrest.
• Plan, provide, and train is the three step process that OSHA uses to prevent dangerous falls and save lives.
• Although there are rare exceptions to this rule, Federal OSHA limits the arrest or fall distance to six feet.
• Fom 10.9 incidents per 100 workers in the year 1972, worker injuries and illnesses decreased to 3.4 per 100 in the year 2011.

Monitoring the safety of your workers is an important part of being a business owner. Putting the right managers and supervisors in place can help you make sure that all of the guidelines that are necessary are understood and implemented.