When working at heights, your fall protection and safety equipment is almost certainly the most important part of your work gear. You use the gear all day, everyday. That’s exactly why inspection is so critical. It takes just a few minutes to look over all of your equipment each day before you begin work. It ensures that even if you put it away in perfect condition last time you used it, that it wasn’t damaged in transit or storage. And, let’s not forget a rogue coworker who “just needed to borrow it for a minute” that could have damaged it without you knowing.

What Needs to Be Inspected?

• Harnesses
• Lanyards
• Lifelines
• Load Rope
• Slings
• Anchors
• Self Retracting Lifelines
• Cable Sleeves
• Ladders
• Hoists and Pulleys
• Hardware (Shackles, blocks, carabiners, pulleys, etc)
• PPE (Helmets, glasses, boots, etc)

Obviously there is a lot to go through everyday before you start work. Some people out there only take a piece of equipment out of service once it actually fails. That’s a terrible mindset to have when you’re thinking about the fall protection gear that you’re relying on to save your life in the event of a fall.

Every worker should always do a full check of all of their equipment before work begins each day. If you find anything wrong with the gear, if it does not pass the inspection, you should take it out of service. For this reason, an extra back up harness, lanyard, etc wouldn’t be a bad idea to have in the work trailer!

There are a number of resources out there to review proper inspection practices. Many of which our Gear Experts® have helped various manufacturers produce!

• First check a harness or lanyard for its impact indicators to determine if it’s been involved in a fall. Most modern versions of these will have sewn in indicators. If those show a fall has occurred, remove the equipment from service.
• First look for any cuts, knicks, tears, or rips. Different manufacturers have different guidelines for how much of this type of damage is allowable, but better safe than sorry. If you question it, remove it from service.
• Next, any hard spots, burns, chemical, or UV damage. Discoloration from sun or chemical damage may not seem significant but it can weaken the strength of the webbing or cord and reduce the strength.
• Be sure to also inspect any hardware on harnesses or lanyards for rust, deformation, pitting, corrosion, etc.

For ropes, you’re looking for a lot of the same things as listed above. Be sure to also look for bunching, bird nests, kinking, or unusual twists in the rope as these can also significantly reduce the strength of the rope. Again, run every inch of rope through your hands daily prior to use.